Warderick Wells Cay @ Emerald Rock
02/27/2012 - 02/28/2012 75 °F
Sometimes that ol' travelin' Jones just needs to be satisfied. We had been three nights at Shroud Cay and I was ready to get on down the road. The plan was to get to Little Farmers Cay, get fuel and water, and then to wait for the right wind to make our first trip on he windward side of the Exumas, necessary to get to George Town. So, on Monday, we left a little after 0600, well before sunrise and got a chance to check out the several running lights -- they all work. The forecast was for diminishing winds sometime on Monday; the wind as we got underway was about 13 knots, from the east.
When we hit the open water the winds were 20~25 knots and from about 135o to 140o, almost exactly our planned course of travel. For three hours we motored into the wind, waiting for it to lighten; never happened. We had RPM's for 6.5 knots and were struggling to make 4.5 knots and burning fuel like crazy for the privledge of going very slowly. The only other boat we saw underway early was a mega-yacht with power to spare. There were rain squalls, welcome for cleaning the cockpit strata-glass, but not encouraging for the weather.
My guess was that we could not make Little Farmers Cay in daylight in this wind; and, if we did we would be just beat to pieces. So, I decided to call it a day and we headed in to the Emerald Rock mooring field at Warderick Wells Cay, maybe half a mile south of where we stayed the first time. This mooring field was very full, most boats still hunkered down from the passing front. I guess that we unhunkered too quickly, although we did finally see one or two boats getting underway about noon.
The eponymous Emerald Rock is well named; it's about the greenest thing around these arid parts. At lower tides it looks like a mushroom, being undercut about five feet all the way around the base.
Although I have to say that my new favorite clump of useless, mostly barren windswept rock is this one: London Gin Rock. I can only hope that there is a great story, maybe bawdy, maybe debauched, behind the name.
Even when the weather ain't so great, there is always a good reason to celebrate the sun having gone over the yardarm. Actually, we have spreaders, but the thought is the same.
Monday night, another problem, but of my creation. Too abstruse to explain other than part of the great re-ballasting project of late '09 came a cropper and had to be redone. Turned out to easier to do than I thought it would.
So, that done, we are off, south, with no particular goal in mind. We know many anchorages and we'll see what the wind allows.
Posted by sailziveli 08:00 Archived in Bahamas Tagged boating bahamas