The Neverending Day

3.1.13 After a week of tooling around the Abacos, we are more than ready to head South. The weather has been great this week and we have trekked around to Lubbers Quarters, Hopetown , Man O War and Marsh Harbour enjoying the sailing, sunny skies and beautiful waters. But, finally, after a ten day wait we got a phone call yesterday saying that our sail was ready. And it couldn't have come at a better time as a window for the crossing is in our sights. We hauled anchor early this morning, eager to collect our sail as soon as possible. Unforunately, the day was grey, rainy and cold. We made it to Man O War under motor and pulled into the protected, albeit overcrowded harbour and picked up a mooring. We excitedly dinghied over to Jay Manni's dock to retrieve our headsail. It was a beautiful sight to see, folded and corded neatly at the entrance to his workshop. We couldn't have been happier! We ferried the sail home, I mean back to the mothership, and immediately set about hauling her back into position. Once up, and inspected, we rolled her back up, released the mooring lines and headed back out into the sea of Abaco. It seemed as if everything was going our way - finally! We were heading South to stage at Lynyard Cay and tomorrow was looking like the perfect day to cross. The day, although cold and rainy was a great sailing day and gave us a chance to check the jib and make sure it was performing well before the crossing. We made it to Lynyard Cay by early afternoon and dropped the hook. We hauled the dinghy and outboard up on deck and stowed everything in preparation for the crossing. As is our habit, we checked the weather once we were anchored and saw that, much to our chagrin, conditions for tomorrow seemed to be deteriorating. The wind was going to be stronger than we had anticipated and out in the open ocean, that was the last thing we wanted. After much discussion and hemming and hawing amongst ourselves, we decided that the best time to go would in fact be right now. Although we were tired, we didn't want to miss this window! So, we had a quick dinner and took off for Eleuthra an hour before sundown. The crossing was great! We had perfect conditions and great wind, sending us at a brisk 6-7 knots towards Eleuthra. We would be there before dawn and the trip would only take about 10 hours. We were ecstatic! Of course, as this trip had proven, the good can only last so long. About 3 in the morning, the wind shifted and then died and brought with it a barrage of freezing cold rain. Of course, I was at the helm at this point, as always seems to be the case when it is pouring down rain in the pitch black dark. I told Brad to stay below - no sense in both of us being miserable. We arrived at the bank around 4am and motored in to anchor just outside of Royal Island. Royal Island is an encloed anchorage, protected from all sides and was perfect for the upcoming blow. Unfortunately you have to pass through a narrow channel and without light, that was not something we were up for. We anchored just outside in the lee of a hill and took a three hour nap. Despite being freezing cold and utterly exhausted, we hauled up the anchor and headed in to Royal Island where we dropped hook and lazed around for the rest of the day. Finally, after weeks of waiting, we had finally left the Abacos! Although the end of the crossing hadn't gone smashingly and we were utterly exhausted from the day that never seemed to end, we were happy to be in Eleuthra.