First light and there are lights on land off to our right. We are powering east along the north edge of The Bahamas. As over night passages go it was not bad. In no particular order the evening events included.
Gorgeous sunset with Ft Pierce just out of sight. Sort of a green flash though some cloud at the horizon. Not spectacular like others we have seen.
Low overflight 400 ft about 9:30 by a twin turbo who announced on Channel 16 that he was the Coast Guard wanting to contact the sailing catamaran at these coordinates. As the only vessel in a 35 mile radius we assume he mean us. They had had reports of flares in the area. Had we seen any? No we had not. Thanks and off they went to search the grids to the south.
We saw a couple of other ships in the night. No close encounters.
There are at least a billion stars out on a clear night over the gulf stream. Several planets and lots of aircraft too.
The Jib won’t furl with the screecher halyard rolled up in it. Easy fix.
When the boom falls it goes thud not boom. Appears that the pin was not secured properly with a cotter pin. Fortunately this happened after the main had been taken down after midnight. Secured with the halyard. Can wait til we reach land. Wind too close to sail anyway.
Even if the water and air temperature is 80 it is still cold at night doing 7-8 knots in 12-15 apparent.
Seas were mostly 1-2 feet. Some wind against current chop and 4-5 ft waves. Left over from big cold winter storms up north earlier in the week. A few white caps in the gusts. Winds were light out of the north mostly 7-10 with some gusts. We motor sailed so the apparent was more and we averaged 7 knots.
The Gulf Stream is really deep as well as fast moving north. The depth gauge just gives up after about 1000 ft. Occasionally the depth would show as 40-50 ft. Can only guess what that might be.
Chocolate milk makes better hot chocolate than the stuff in the package. — Cub Scout mom life hack.
The new Bimini for the boat works great. Serious design challenge. Not much space. Funny slope to the cabin top. All lines lead aft to the cockpit. Minimum clearance between the boom and the cabin top. And the maker was sure we needed a window of his special EZ2CY clear product. It is great. The structure is sturdy. We know what to look for as Steve had a summer job at a company that made boat structures with questionable engineering in Steve’s opinion. That little bit of window is wonderful as it really keeps the draft down. And it looks good.
Although not nearly as impressive as previous experiences the bioluminescence in the toilet bowl was on display.
Entrance to Spanish Cay is way over on the north east side. Lots of low islands and shallows off to the south of our track.
We haven’t seen any of the really big porpoises like we saw last time. No birds either. Normally we only see the top of the water in a 35 mile radius. When these 3 big porpoise swam by they were stacked and the water was crystal clear for at least 30 feet down.
We didn’t do formal watches. We each got a couple of hour long naps through the night. So no one was stuck on deck alone for a block of time.
The moon was about half. Out from dusk and set around midnight. Nice and bright as the sky was clear.
Latitude and longitude are (to me at least) surprisingly precise. They are changing faster than you can read them off and write them down. On passages we record our position every hour.
Cassandra Too 