the Green Turtle Club is amazing!! And…”life is short”!
After days of stormy weather and a determined Northern wind, we have at last tossed the lines and left Green Turtle Cay. The Bahamas have always been an image of ease to me. Having grown up on the water, I know about the changing sea state due to weather and how beautiful all the various stages can be. There is something alluring and oddly romantic when the skies thicken, blacken and the winds are full. Granted that impression is when your home is land and your view is the sea. When your home is a boat, and your view is the ‘sea state’, well that very weather can be your obstacle.Between Green Turtle Cay and Treasure Cay is a mere ten miles as the crow flies, twenty miles as the boat goes. The Bahamas, notorious for their shallows, provides a series of pathways for a boat that draws more than the height of a grown child and not all of those are navigable by a boat that draws more. So to get from Green Turtle Cay to Treasure Cay or anywhere along this southern journey of Madame Geneva, we must go by Whale’s Cay Passage, or the “Whale”. There are fun runs that are more of a distance…
The Whale is discussed daily on cruisers net in the Abacos. Noted on the charts is a caution against attempting passage in strong northerly winds. Granted the distance from the Whale Cay rocky shores of the shallow shelf to the drop of hundreds of feet of sea depth is about the length of the island itself, 2 miles. So I hear you, it makes sense. What is surprising is how severe it can get. Even small waves in a northern wind can get angry. So we thought about our departure on Sunday and decided…nope.There is always a point after making a decision to not go (typically after that decision the sun comes out and the wind dies and it looks ‘great’) that you think we totally should have ‘went’. “It didn’t sound THAT bad.” “It is only two miles.” Luckily there are always a few salts around the Bahamas that keep you in check: “See that motor boat there (about 70 ft long and about the weight OF Whale Cay), I came through the Whale on that and I was airborne!”
So we stayed.
We took out the inflatable kayaks and began a tour of the harbor. Justin and I on the double kayak and each child on an individual, we went against the wind (blowing 15-20) toward Green Turtle Club. Gherty took the prize for the most resilient and quickest kayaker. A fantastic lunch was had and a super easy kayak back. We had just managed to get the kayaks up on the dock, and then on the boat as we noticed a particularly angry squall coming on, when the wind and rain began. And in through the storm on that same intermittently sunny Sunday, came our friends whom we met in Palm Beach prior to making the Gulf Stream crossing. Jared, Lori and Haley left on Thursday on their Beneteau for a couple week trip around the Bahamas. They arrived in style: bimini in shreds, gusts of 35, and an unanchored sailboat bearing down on them while managing to grab a mooring.
We spent a lot of time with our new friends. They had great ideas, such as trailing the kayaks behind their dinghy for an excursion out to No Name Cay (which by the way is really, really close to Treasure Cay…). Luckily Gherty and Haley were the ones in the double kayak that capsized (they are MUCH better sports than the others!). We had to abandon said kayak at New Plymouth and recover it after our trip. No Name is known for its swimming pigs but also offered an incredible view of the ocean from its gnarly shore.
And after each day rising as if caught in “Ground Hogs Day”, we awoke at last this morning to the stillness of a light breeze, the warmth of the sun set in blue skies, and an antsy captain. Cruisers net confirmed our notion of a lovely pass. We set off about 9:00 and found our way out of the narrow and shallow entrance to GTC. And the Whale was beautiful and forgiving…we gave her the respect she deserved and she, in turn, gave us a friendly passage. Once around and back into the Sea of Abaco, we raised the main and brought out the jib! Maybe a bit too quickly for all my scurrying around (I made drinking water as we passed the Whale and hadn’t yet quite gotten it all together down below)…but sailing waits for no woman!
The entrance to Treasure was more daunting than Green Turtle so I am guessing we should get rather used to this! Our friends have pulled a mooring alongside of ours and so begins the jumping in the water, and paddling of kayaks and paddleboards…Much love and stay tuned.
sweet autonomy!!