Leaving the Bahamas!

On April 23rd, we got up in the morning and dinghied into the shallows at Manjack to see the turtles. We must have spotted at least two dozen of them as we floated around. We weren’t quick enough to get any good photos, though. They are fast (contrary to popular belief!)

After our turtle adventure, we made a quick decision to depart the Bahamas in the evening, with a weather window having appeared that would get us to Charleston before the next round of adverse winds. We started prepping all the things for departure, and invited our friend boats over to say goodbye before we headed out.

With hugs distributed, we all jumped in the water for one more swim in Bahamian waters.

We left at about 4:15 and went out Manjack passage. The tide and wind situation meant we got to contend with some rather big waves as we fought our way out. Nothing unmanageable, but I’m guessing Nate was questioning his sanity as we headed for several days out at sea. Cecelia even joined us in the cockpit for quite a while, given the state of affairs.

Once we got to a point where we could raise the main, we decided to test out the bolted boom fix by raising it up to each reef point and then all the way (so we’d be starting with the smallest main possible, then slowly filling her out). As we prepared for the raise, the halyard got away from us, flying around in the air. Oops. I turned the boat around, and Patrick chased the tail end down with a boat hook, and got it reconnected. We finally got the main up to full hoist around 6:15. All seemed well, which was a huge relief. We adjusted our track to 350 degrees…next stop Charleston!

I was on first watch, and we sailed until about 11:30 at night, and then had to turn the motor on as the wind died out. Patrick took over watch at midnight, and I went to sleep. We were on our way!

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