April 10th -
We had a beautiful day of sailing from Green Turtle Cay northwest then west through the Abacos. Since our crossing to the States would be at least four days we planned the details of our offshore crossing watches. What has worked for us in the past is for me to get in a nap after dinner around 2100 and Tim, the night owl, stays up until around 0300. Tim then wakes me to take over during the early morning hours until sometime after sunrise. We both then nap throughout the day in the main cabin where we have ourselves set up to sleep during the crossing.
Our last Bahamas sunset.
As sun was setting, we heard the bilge pump turning on more frequently than usual. Tim checked the bilge: it wasn't fresh water so not from the water tanks and it wasn't warm water so it wasn't from the engine cooling system or exhaust, but it was salt water. A search of all below the water line thru-hull fittings didn't find any water entering, but a smalll stream of salt water was found to be flowing forward from an area near the stern under the quarterberth from an area in the aft section of the boat. After removing some wood panels it appeared the water might be entering through the hull from an area under a bulkhead. Since we were about to sail off the relative security of the 15 deep Abacos bank into open water, we anchored and Tim decided to investigate further. Tim donned his wetsuit to check the hull exterior and he located a small area of the hull at about the right location of the suspected leak where the bottom paint was missing and the gelcoat appeared irregular. I prepared a glob of underwater epoxy and Tim applied it to the irregular area hoping it might solve the problem. It seemed that the patch may have worked as the water was no longer streaming from behind the bulkhead.. While we waited for the epoxy to cure a bit before continuing our journey, we ate dinner at anchor. In the meantime the wind and waves were rapidly picking up and for the first time of the trip the anchor started to drag. At the same time a check down below found water once again slowly streaming in. Either the building waves had peeled the epoxy off before it had cured or the area was not the source of the leak. As we were still taking on a small amount of water, we decided it would be prudent to turn around and seek safe harbor 12 miles back east in the lee of Great Sal Cay. Unfortunately, the east wind picked up and we were heading directly into it at only 2 knots. At that rate we would have arrived in the early morning. We looked at each other, assessed our situation and fact that only a small amount of water that was coming in and we decided to turn around and continue on our way north keeping a close eye on the situation.
It was about 2300, my bedtime, and despite all the excitement, I put my head on the pillow and was immediately in dreamland as usual. We reached the west end of the Abacos Bank by sunrise and continued northwest headed for the Gulf Stream in 2000+ foot deep water. Several hours later we realized we had entered the Gulf Stream when the water got a bit choppy and the temperature went up to 76 degree. We were also traveling at 9+ knots according the the GPS, several knots more than the average 7 knot boat speed through the water. We had a glorious days and nights of sailing, with a nearly full moon and very little motoring. We were quite fortunate that the weather window Chris Parker and Tim had predicted were perfect. We had no adverse conditions and we settled into our offshore rhythm with ease.
A little friend who joined me on my morning watch.
Tim decided there was not enough excitement during his day watch and decided to do some trolling He caught a mahi mahi but unfortunately he didn't get the assistance of his trusty mate as I was sound asleep, and the lucky fish got away. There is a lot that has to happen on board a sailboat to land a fish while sailing. Later on the third day of the crossing Tim caught something big. We worked for an hour to get it along side and it was a six foot Black Tip Shark known to be excellent eating. However, landing a six foot shark on a sailboat is not feasible. Thankfully the thrashing shark broke the line and solved the dilemma of how we were going to release the fish. Tim got quite a workout and settled into a well deserved rest.
Working for an hour trying to reel in something big.
A six foot Black Tip Shark
During the last day of the crossing we suddenly realized we had slowed down. We checked the water temperature ans it had also plummeted to 72 F. How did we lose the Gulf Stream and were we now north or south of it. Tim thought we had sailed north of it and I thought we sailed south of it. We did a couple of zig zag legs to try to find it and eventually decided to just change our course to sail for Beaufort inlet. Since we never did find the Gulf Stream again, we must have sailed out of it to the north. Since our landfall was likely to be in the middle of the night and Beaufort Inlet can be tricky with strong currents, we decided to sail for Cape Lookout, anchor and get some sleep.
Gulf Stream map current velocities and direction of flow.
We arrived at Cape Lookout on April 14th at 3 AM, dropped the hook, and were soon fast asleep. In total, we traveled approximately 615 miles from Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas to Morehead City/Beaufort, North Carolina, averaging 7.5 kts. quite an accomplishment!
Sunrise at Cape Lookout, North Carolina.
We awoke to a gorgeous morning and had a hearty breakfast using up all the food items that are prohibited to bring into the States. We sailed an hour to Beaufort Inlet and proceeded to Morehead City to meet up with US Customs and Border Patrol officials. A custom official arrived at the dock within an hour, checked our passports and boat documentation, welcomed us back the the States, and sent us on our way. We then continued north for a couple of hours and west up the Neuse River toward New Bern, NC where we would be leaving Kuivato to rest for a month. We anchored one last night along the south shore of the River, delaying the end of the journey on last night. The next day we sailed the final miles to New Bern and docked at the Bridgepointe Marina where Kuivato would rest until Tim and his Dad returned a month later in warmer weather to sail her home to Kittery, Maine.
Our route to Beaufort, NC
Two days after driving back to Kittery Maine, we enjoyed our first and last day of skiing for the season, atop Bretton Woods with Mt. Washington in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment