DAY 1 – Monday, November 6, 2023
The planning was done, the maintenance finished, the provisioning complete, and the route updated and double-checked. The big day had come for our return to The Bahamas. We left from Charleston, South Carolina, at sunrise. It was a beautiful morning. Kory drove us off the dock while Rick, Maryalice, and I took off fenders and dock lines and secured the lifelines. We headed out into Charleston Bay and into the Atlantic Ocean to begin our 406.2 nautical mile journey to West End, on Grand Bahama island, to check into customs.
The first day out in the open Atlantic was beautiful, but with such little wind we had to motor almost the whole day. We put the Screecher up for about an hour, but when the apparent wind speeds held at 4 knots, we had to take it down. We encountered 3-4 foot swells at six seconds for much of the day, and all but Kory felt a little sick to our stomachs. Aside from a little rocking and rolling, it was a pleasant sunny day. Maryalice and I even got to take naps on the flybridge and soak up some sun.
About halfway through our first day we were greeted with a pod of dolphins swimming with us at the bow of the boat. That made for some excitement. And to top it off, the water was getting clearer and cleaner and we could finally use the water maker again (not something we could do in the Chesapeake over the summer)
The evening seas calmed down and we had a beautiful night with only 2-foot swells and light warm breezes. The farther we went south, the warmer it got. It made for a very comfortable night. Mayralice and Rick took the 8-11pm shift; Kory took the 11-2am shift; I took the 2-5am shift, and then Rick finished us off with a 5-7am shift, with Kory coming up to help as well. All in all, it was a great first day of our passage.
DAY 2 – Tuesday, November 7, 2023
We all had a fairly good night’s rest and were ready for the new day. It was a lot more of the same, pretty uneventful, until about noon when we crossed the Gulf Stream. We had the wind on our port beam with a 2.5 knot cross current on the starboard side for about five hours while we crossed. It was a little rolly, but overall fairly comfortable. Mayalice felt a little queasy throughout the day and is trying to adjust to being back on a boat.
The good thing about today is that we were able to raise the mainsail and headsail for half the day to help propel us along. Come late afternoon, the wind died down so much that we had to furl in the headsail, drop the main, and motor again. We’ve been running on one engine at a time to save fuel. Over the course of sailing these past ten months, we’ve learned that running both engines while underway is not the most efficient. It only gives us an extra knot in speed and burns a lot more fuel. By running only one engine, we save a lot of fuel and added time on the engines. There is so much we’re still learning.
The skies were clear and we had a mostly 75-degree day, with no rain thus far. We didn’t see any dolphins this day, but we did have a little stowaway bird that the dogs would have chased if they were allowed — not on a boat in the middle of the ocean, however!
Kory let out the line on our fishing pole early in the morning but, by sunset, we hadn’t caught a thing. So Rick reeled it back in. We’ll try again tomorrow.
Kory spent some time checking the forecast while I made rosemary roasted salmon, yellow rice, and fresh green beans for dinner. I think we’ll all sleep well tonight!
My night watch went well. I covered the 6:15-7:45pm shift right after dinner, and then the 2:30-6am shift. I had two large cargo ships passing in the night, but they were so far away that there were no concerns of collision. The crescent moon provided just enough light on the port side to see its reflection on the water. Lo and behold, the seas were like glass with a slight swell of about 1-2 feet. We were just gliding through glassy seas. The stars were shining bright and I could make out many constellations. It was a delightful ending to the second day of our passage aboard Hope.
DAY 3 – Wednesday, November 8, 2023
While checking Navionics at 4am on my watch, I determined that we had 138 nautical miles left to go before arriving at West End. We needed to plan our arrival strategically so we would get there Thursday morning after sunup and not have to anchor in the dark. At the 4am rate of 6.1 knots, we would arrive at 4:30am, so we knew we would need to slow the boat down during the day to time our arrival in daylight.
Our third day was pretty exciting because we were able to sail the majority of the day. With both engines off, the mainsail and headsail up, we were doing anywhere from 5-7 knots with very little wind (7-9 true; 8-10 apparent). We had a 1.5 knot current behind us much of the day, so that helped increase our speed. It felt good to sail, and the guys were particularly happy not to have to run the engines.
During the day, we saw what looked like a baby pilot whale surfacing in and out of the water. We had a stowaway bird on board as well. No fish on the line today, just a bunch of seaweed. We had taco soup for dinner and salmon leftovers from the night before. It was another successful day. We were set to arrive at West End, Grand Bahamas, around 7-8am, Thursday, Nov 9th. More to come about our arrival…
