Thursday afternoon we had to decide what to do with little or no wind. Our only choices seemed to be finding another place to anchor for the night or cranking up the engine. Well, we don't like to motor our sailboat, so we started looking for a place to anchor out in the middle of the banks. Then John said, "We could just keep sailing all night long." Wow! What a concept!
The moon was full so it was easy to see all night long. We decided that with four-hour watches we could sail all night just fine. John agreed to take two night-time watches. Here's how our watches were scheduled: John sailing from 8 PM to midnight, Penny sailing from midnight to 4AM, John sailing from 4AM to 8AM, and Penny from 8AM to noon.
Well, that's the way it went! We sailed all night on Thursday rather than stopping to anchor. This picture is at sunset on Thursday night as John sailed us northwest over the Little Bahama Banks. Penny was getting ready to take a 4 hour nap until her watch started at midnight.
On Friday morning, May 8th, we were still transiting the Bahama Banks. We continued with our watches. Then at 9:45 AM Penny sailed off the banks and into the Atlantic heading for the center of the Gulf Stream. Here's Capt. John napping in the cockpit as we approached the ocean.
The Atlantic and the Gulf Stream were awesome! The water color changed from light aqua to a deep, beautiful royal blue--like ink! The wind was steady and the current in the Gulf Stream enhanced our boat speed from a good hull speed of 6 or 7 knots to an exceptional speed of 9 to 10 knots! Woo-hoo! We're on our way home!
The scopalamine patches were working for Penny and the Power Bars were holding out. We charted our progress north and discussed options to change directions and head west to the US coast. But after one day at sea, it seemed like a good idea to keep going. The weather was great and the boat and we were holding up well.
This is sunset on Saturday, May 9th.
Saturday afternoon the wind died and we were forced to motor for 3 hours until the wind picked up again. The 4 hour watches continued and we were doing fine. There was no need to turn left and head to Georgia or South Carolina. We decided to stay in the Gulf Stream and press on to Beaufort, NC.
On Sunday, May 10th (Mothers' Day), we continued to sail swiftly north. Then at 3:30 PM again the wind died. We floated along marveling at the flat, calm ocean. It was very strange and sort of eerie. Of course, we could just hang out and wait for the wind to pick up again, but we were running out of good weather. This seemed to be the calm before the storm. So, we roller furled the jib and cranked up the engine--after all, we had lots of diesel fuel!
We motored all night Sunday. The moon was still full and we were lucky to be far away from big freighters and cruise liners that worry sailors at sea. During John's watch this last night, he did what he had been wanting to do for our whole trip--he caught a fish! Actually, there were two fish--flying fish--which jumped out of the sea and onto our deck. No kidding! And, they were fairly good size too.
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Still motoring we moved out of the Gulf Stream toward the coast of North Carolina. The sky was already clouding up and by late morning on Monday, May 11th the temperature dropped and torrents of rain beat on us. We could see land first in the distance and then began to recognize the sea buoys leading into Beaufort Inlet. It was nice to think about being back in Beaufort, but the awful weather was making us wonder if we should turn around and go back!
The rain eased up and we sailed into Taylor's Creek, Beaufort--ahhh-home. We called Beaufort Docks for a slip so we could check into US Customs. We lowered the Bahamian ensign and raised our yellow quarantine flag. Penny went ashore to talk to customs and arrange for them to come inspect the boat. We could not leave the boat until we were checked through customs. By early afternoon, the customs official got to our boat from Morehead and officially inspected Caribbean Soul. We passed the test and are now legally free to move about the country.
And move about the country we will! Lots more adventures are yet to come.
This is the end of our 2009 Bahama Blog. Thanks for reading our blog. You were always a part of our sailing adventure as we took pictures and prepared stories for you.
Stay in touch, you are important to us!
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