A 'Raging Whale' leads us to 'Shangri La'.

A ‘raging Whale’ leads us to Shangri-la……..’Orchid Bay’.

We spent nine days in Marsh Harbour waiting for the weather to settle down and the winds to clock below 20 knots! Harbour View Marina treated us well, and we enjoyed our stay. But eventually there comes a time when the weather forecasters tell you it’s time to pry yourself off the dock and start heading for home. So, on Thursday, we sailed north once more to Great Guana Cay and picked up a mooring in Fisher Bay. Next stop would be a crossing of the dreaded ‘Whale’ – the entrance out and back into the Atlantic. We had travelled over to Great Guana with Mike, who is single-handing his Hunter 380, ‘Norma Fay’, and we arranged to meet him for drinks at ‘Grabbers Bar’ on the beach that evening. Unfortunately our outboard motor decided to give up the ghost, which left ‘Southern Vectis’ stranded about half a mile from the shore and, with the choppy seas and current, definitely not within rowing distance. However, Mike sent out the cavalry to bring us in to our watering hole! We were just resigning ourselves to a lonesome sunset drink when Pete from ‘Dream Seeker 2’ arrived in his dinghy to take us ashore. We had a good cocktail hour or two, and a good chat with our saviour, Pete, and his wife Pat.
Overnight the wind increased once more with gusts of 28 knots. All the anchored boats left in a hurry during the early morning heading to the shelter of Treasure Cay. This left about five boats on the moorings. Later in the morning we heard ‘Dive Guana’, the company that owns the moorings, warning a power boat off from taking a mooring because of the anticipated ‘blow’, so we decided to call and find out about the safety of our mooring. We were told that that, if conditions worsened and the wind clocked around to the west, we would be asked to leave the mooring! Our imagination ran wild at the thought of a midnight knock on the hull, and a request to move off in the dead of night in the teeth of a gale! So…..we moved around the corner into the next bay and to a dock at the beautiful ‘Orchid Bay’ marina. As the day progressed ‘Norma Fay’, ‘Dream Seeker,’ and ‘Avignon,’ sailed by Dave and Terry, followed us. Then Tony and Wendy from Port Credit Yacht Club arrived on ‘Delta’, and this beautiful, but usually fairly quiet marina, filled up.
We are all very happy to be here, not just because we are safe and sound from the howling winds, but also because Orchid Bay is not just a marina, but a most beautiful resort. We are being charged only $1 a foot for all this splendour! Yesterday we decided to make the most of every minute, and spent the day beside the pool and walking into the little town and, of course, over to ‘Grabbers’ bar once again! We had all met for drinks in the resort’s bar the first night, and last night Pete and Pat hosted drinks on board ‘Dream Seeker’, and then we joined Mike for dinner at resort’s lovely waterfront restaurant. Today more boats are arriving as it’s Sunday, and ‘Nippers Bar’ facing over the Atlantic, has its famous ‘Pig Roast’.
The talk all morning is about possible ‘weather windows’ and plans to head north and cross the Gulf Stream. Should we do this, should we do that? No one is sure what to do as the weather really hasn’t settled down that much, and the forecasts are a bit ambiguous! To add to the complications, we not only have an outboard engine that doesn’t work, but also Bill has discovered that the ‘zinc’ has gone from our prop shaft. (A zinc prevents galvanic erosion of through-hull fittings!!) We shall all probably go through ‘the Whale’ tomorrow morning as the winds are supposed to go down a bit. Then, we have three choices: To take the boat into Green Turtle Cay to see if we can get the zinc fitted; to carry on and do some long days and nights of sailing to get back to Florida if the weather window materializes, or to take our time getting to West End on Grand Bahama, and do a daytime crossing to Florida from there. Only time and weather will tell. In the meantime we are off to ‘Nippers’, and then on to ‘Grabbers’, and then, at sunset, Mike, who is a member of a Jimmy Buffet style group called ‘Boat Drunks’, has offered to play for us while we sip our cocktails under the gazebo as the sun sets over the turquoise and turbulent Sea of Abaco. Watch this space!