Wild, Wild Westerlies

Black Point to Big Majors |  1.4 Hours  |  8.2 Miles  

The biggest concern for cruisers is coming down with a case of Gottagits. It is only asking for trouble when you gotta get somewhere, at a particular time, irregardless of weather conditions. It has been forecasted for a couple of days that the wind would spin around and come out of the west. In a normal situation, we would move to a location that offered a little protection from the westerly wind and accompanying waves. We faced this day with a severe case of Gottagits. Our heat exchanger had been delivered to Staniel Cay yesterday afternoon and we Gottagit it. In hindsight we should have pulled the dinghy up last night following our relaxing sunset cruise, but did not. That exercise of raising the dinghy proved to be more stressful than it should have been as our tranquil anchorage at Black Point had turned rolly overnight. We had to hope that our exposure to the westerlies would be short lived and not too bouncy. It was a short ride to the familiar Big Majors anchorage. We joined a surprisingly large number of boats off of Pig Beach -- monohulls, catamarans, and several luxury megayachts. Other than the sea state, it was a pretty day. I spent several hours on the upper deck reading. I also watched the waves crash against the shore and our next door neighbor pitch up and down with every wave (bow high in the air, then burried in a wave). At least we were more comfortable in our heavy trawler than the folks in the lightweight sailboats.  

The weather was rough enough that the usual endless stream of high-speed boat traffic bringing tourists to Pig Beach was nonexistent. The pigs roamed up and down the sand. I am sure they were hungry and wondering where all their treats were. As the afternoon progressed, the waves built and there were whitecaps in the anchorage. We resigned to the fact that Mother Nature had other plans for us and we would not get to shore as planned. With the weakening sun, the 15-20 knot wind took on a chill and chased me inside. I finished my shower as the sun was setting in a red fireball. This evening red at night was not a sailor's delight. Dinner was an adventure as I chased plates and bowls across the countertop while keeping the skillet of scallops on the burner. As I'm posting I feel the wind clocking around as the wind and waves are no longer in synch. It is the bumpiest night we've had so far this year. We hope to get some sleep and that the wind continues to clock around overnight so that we can try Operation Part Retrieval again tomorrow.