Rock Sound, Eleuthera to Fernandez Bay, Cat Island | 11.8 Hours | 77 Miles
After a few great days exploring Rock Sound and a few more not-so-great days sitting for weather, we were excited to get moving again. The weather was still a bit uncertain so we strayed from our standard procedures and did not leave at first light. We took advantage of the extra hour and double-checked that everything was stowed properly and all doors and drawers fully latched. The $7 head of cabbage found a safe traveling spot in the sink. One by one, the boats began raising anchor and filing out of the anchorage. We allowed the two boats beside us to clear before I went out on the bow in the rain. By the time our anchor was up and secure, the drizzle had stopped, the sky was clearing, and a nice rainbow formed behind us. Fun with rainbows followed.
We followed the boat parade to the Sound Point waypoint. By this time the water was glistening and back to being crystal clear. The stone beacon to our port sat in the bright blues representing shallow water. At the waypoint most boats turned north to Governor's Harbour or beyond. A few, including Paradigm Shift (the catamaran) continued west to the Exumas. Two of us turned south and did not have much company all day. At the southern tip of Eleuthera, Carnival Sunrise was holding station outside of its Princess Cay port of call. We continued toward Little San Salvador and Half Moon Bay, where the Carnival Conquest blocked our view of the beautiful harbor we visited 13 days ago.
Waves mounted as we neared The Bridge, a stretch of shallow open water between Little San Salvador and Cat Island. The swells increased in height to about six feet, but maintained a long period. We took them head on but never took any water over the bow. Once we got into the lee of Cat Island, everything calmed back down to expected conditions and we made great time. As the sun neared the horizon, we cruised past our intended anchor spot in order to squeeze out some more miles. We hugged the coast and got some good views of The Bluffs and caves. High-level math came into play determining how much further we could go before we ran out of light.
We had hopes of a green flash, but there was none today. The sun sank below the horizon and lit up the sky. Dusk continued for another half hour, providing plenty of light for travel. The nearly full moon rose to the east and took over for the sun. We pulled into Fernandez Bay right as the dark of night was taking hold. We followed our previous track in to find a good spot right behind a gathering of eight sailboats. I put on my headlamp to help see the painted marks on the chain. We anchored without issue and the headlamp penetrated all 13-feet of water allowing me to see the anchor hit the sandy bottom. All is good. Today was all about making miles. We broke our prior trip from Fernandez Bay to Rock Sound into three days. We fast-tracked the route today and covered the same distance in slightly less than 12 hours. We're trying hard to explore the areas we thought we had missed because of the mechanical issue with our stabilizer fin. Tomorrow we will leave at first light and make new tracks.
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