Great Friends

4.6.11

We finally left Hatchet Bay today. While yesterday had been too rough to leave, today was too calm – where is the happy medium here? We had to motor the first two hours before the wind finally picked up and we were able to sail. Today we were going through Current Cut, a rather tricky passing. The cut is a narrow pass between two land masses where at anything but slack tide, the current races through either pushing you too fast or pushing against you so hard that with a small sailboat motor you cannot even get through! So, we had to make sure we made it to the cut at a certain time.
We timed it perfectly, hitting the cut at dead slack tide. As we were cruising through, sails up, I thought I heard my name being called off the starboard side. When I looked, there were three men yelling and waving their arms around on the seawall. It was our trawler friends! They had rented a car that day and had planned their day around meeting us at the cut so that they could take pictures of us under sail! How awesome!! We didn't have any pictures of our beautiful boat with her sails up – but we do now!
After that pleasant surprise and a great morning sail, we burst through the other side of Eleuthera into a less than pleasant afternoon. We were now heading straight into the wind – something that you just cannot do in a sailboat. So, we had to tack – something that is not fun to do in a sailboat. A trip that was only 10 miles long and should have taken about 2 hours, maybe a bit more, ended up taking us about 4 hours. We zigged and we zagged and we made ground and then lost ground. It was so frustrating! By the time we finally got to Spanish Wells, we were wind-whipped and exhausted! We dropped anchor outside at the first spot we could find, made sure the boat was secure and then made a beeline for dry land and protection from the wind.
We ran into some people that we knew, and they had rented a golf cart that day to tour the island themselves. They offered to join us for dinner and then take us on a tour of the island. We had a delicious dinner - they even served blizzards there!!! Then they took us on a tour, pointing out the must-sees and the grocery store.
We were very tired from the long sail that day, so we called it an early night and decided to take in more of Spanish Wells tomorrow.