It’s 6am Friday March 8th. We finally have a good weather forecast for the 35 mile trip to Long Island. The dink is tied onto the deck, and I take the sail cover off for the first time in two weeks.
We motor-sail the first five miles between the coral reefs, rocks and small cays that clutter the southeastern end of Elizabeth Harbour. We go out the wide cut into Exuma Sound, cut off the engine and sail with barely enough northern wind to move the boat.
The waters are only 20 to 30 feet deep in this section of the sound. There are no big waves, just a gentle roll. We pass between more reefs and Little Exuma Island.
At about noon, when we are north of Hog Island, the wind increases to 10mph. It’s still a bit squirrelly, but we can mostly sail directly east on a beam reach.
We are south of the Tropic of Cancer now. I think it should be warm enough to sail nekkid, but I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt and windbreaker. Totally unfair.
After passing the White Cay Bank we turn southeast and sail past Indian Hole Point into Thompson Bay, Long Island. We arrive at 4pm. That’s a little late to prepare for the cruisers’ happy hour here, but plenty of time to have supper and watch the sun go down.
Sorry folks. No exciting bad weather, nothing broken, nothing lost, no one hurt. Just a completely boring trip. We love it.
