Crossing the Bank

1.9.11

We left Bimini yesterday in a rush. We were supposed to buddy boat out with Mike and Terry, but they left in a big hurry a bit earlier than we had planned. So we were hurrying to catch up with them. We finally launched and headed out the channel towards the ocean, both of our hearts pounding as the waves outside seemed to be about the same as they were when we arrived. We were definitely more prepared this time around though. We knew what path we had taken on the way in and we could see a bit better through the water to determine the safe depths. There was also a large power boat that went out of the inlet ahead of us. He got stuck on a sandbar while trying to cut across too early, so we knew not to make that mistake!
Despite the fact that the current and winds were again raging, we had a very successful exit. We had no problems getting out and raising the sail before we were off again! As we were coming out, we saw a catamaran lowering their sails preparing to enter the channel. We thought the boat looked familiar but were too busy getting our sails up and getting on track that we didn't have time to hail them. We set off on our 10 miles ocean trek up to North Rock, our cutover point to cross the Bank. The waves were again around 6 feet and the wind was blowing in strong 15-20 knot gusts. We had the lowest amount of sail out possible and were still slicing through the water at 6-7 knots. It was an uncomfortable sail since the waves were hitting us off the beam and rocking us over onto our side with each new set of waves.
Before we made it around Bimini, the catamaran we had met at the entrance hailed us on the VHF. It was one of the boats we had met in Marathon, “Bluewater Cat” and were keeping in contact with as we were supposed to be crossing the Stream the same day. We had lost touch with them once we crossed over, having no way to contact them, but it seemed our paths had once again overlapped.
We could see the Hylas about 5 miles ahead of us and just stayed on her course, eventually making it onto the Bank and into calmer waters. The Bank is a large 70miles across body of water that is 20 feet deep all around. It was smooth sailing for the rest of the day, and while we couldn't catch up to the Hylas with her hull speed, we kept her in sight all day. We stayed in radio contact with Mike and decided to anchor near each other. Since the Bank is so wide, you cannot cross it in one day and it is not recommended to cross in the dark due to coral heads close to the surface that you can only see during the day. So, we finally caught up to the Hylas as the sun was setting, anchoring in the middle of nowhere, and dinghied over to their boat for dinner. It was nice having them get there ahead of us, because when we arrived, they had already prepared all the food and set the table and all we had to do was show up and enjoy a nice hot meal! And, to top it all off – in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around us, we were able to watch the Saints/Seahawks game on the satellite TV!! HA! We were in heaven, if only for the night! Talk about roughing it...
We arrived at Chub Cay around 4:00pm today and set anchor. Upon our arrival, we found the other boat that we had kept in contact with already anchored there! “Quality Time” with a wonderful Canadian couple onboard had been our original “buddy boat” but had left before us since we had encountered some technical issues. It was nice to see we were on the same travel track and what a small world the sailing community is!! We had a nice dinner of chicken fettucine and enjoyed the sunset. We hope to make it into the town of Chub Cay within the next day or two, then travel on to Nassau to have our macerator fixed.