N26° 59.503', W78° 13.100'
Tonight we are anchored in the Northwest Harbour, at Great Sale Cay. This puts us roughly halfway across the Little Bahama Bank and well on our way to Abaco.
After a very comfortable night tied to the waterway seawall, we untied the lines and headed out for the Little Bahama Bank at 0900. The guidebooks suggested transiting the Dover Channel at high tide, which was pretty much due to peak as we were leaving. The shallowest spot we saw was about 7', but at low tide this would have been about 4', so while we would have been okay, it was still prudent guidance.
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| Dover Channel - Notice the line of rock south of the channel |
Once clear of the Dover Channel we were able to start to get an idea of how the conditions would be on the Little Bahama Bank. The winds were southerly, and the further we got out on the bank the more fetch there would be. As it was, we had 1-2' waves most of the day, with the odd larger one to keep us awake. There was also a strange crossways swell running through, so even when we were able to turn to put the waves behind us we still ended up getting rocked every once in a while.
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| Little Bahama Bank |
By noon we were rounding Mangrove Cay and heading towards Great Sale Cay. Now we started getting more waves on our beam, and after we left the shelter of Mangrove Cay, they started getting bigger. To counter this I decided to quarter the waves for a while, first steering into them to have them on our starboard bow, and then turning to put them on the starboard stern. We did this for about an hour or so and then the waves diminished sufficiently that we could continue a straight run towards Great Sale Cay.
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| Mangrove Cay |
When we were about an hour away from Great Sale I looked up and saw a pod of dolphins ahead of us. They turned and started heading towards us, and swam with us for a few minutes before continuing on with their previous business. We weren't able to get a good video of them, but because of how clear the water is here it was amazing to be able to see them so clearly swimming around the boat.
By 1500 we were entering the harbour at Great Sale Cay. There was one sailboat already anchored there.
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| Great Sale Cay |
We moved into the harbour and tried to get ourselves tucked in as far as we could. It was nearly low tide, so we ended up finding a spot with 5' of water where we dropped the hook. Shortly after we arrived another sailboat came in and anchored a little further out than us. Just before dark I noticed that a third sailboat had arrived, and was anchored even further out than the other two.
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| Sunset in Great Sale Cay |
We decided that we wanted to take a break here, but because there's a cold front coming through tomorrow night, with strong winds blowing well into Thursday that means that we'll be staying here until Friday morning.
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