Weather Delay on Great Stirrup Cay
—Blogpost written by Bob
First Stay Over Day on Great Stirrup Cay
The sun made its slow ascent over a sliver of land to the east of our anchorage. It was 6:45 AM on Thursday, April 23, 2020 and we were anchored in a small harbor just south of Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. (Last night was a rough night for sleeping.) We had planned on traveling to Port Lucaya today (on the south side of Grand Bahama) but decided against it when we considered that rage conditions may exist at the south facing inlet and not allow our entrance. (Port Lucaya has a very narrow man-made entrance directly from the Northwest Providence Channel.)
Instead, we decided to wait out the strong winds here and, then, head back directly to the U.S. from here in a more favorable weather window. The 163-nautical mile trip back to the U.S. will take between 19 and 24 hours. According to the latest forecast, this means we will be leaving here about noon on Saturday and will be arriving at Fort Pierce, FL between 7 AM and noon on Sunday. From Fort Pierce, it’s a short hop (couple hours) on the ICW to Vero Beach, where we plan to stay for several days.
I don't particularly like overnight passages since (on a 37-year old sailboat) lots of things can go wrong and, in darkness, they are more difficult to repair.
 |
| The Great Stirrup Lighthouse was built in 1863. At one time it was manned but now it is automated and solar-powered. |
Great Stirrup Cay appears quite unusual in that it is connected to Little Stirrup Cay by what appears to be a small, low, relatively modern concrete bridge. Little Stirrup Cay was all lit up at night but it was difficult to distinguish any homes on the island. Great Stirrup has two lighthouses—an old one and a new one (even though the new one may actually be a water tower in disguise.)
Great Stirrup bas been used as a shoreside excursion stop for cruise ships (the island is currently owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines) and there is a long building (with windows all around) on the island, an 8500 square foot building where lunch is served to the hundreds or thousands of people who would depart the cruise ship for this excursion. (Online, I found out the Little Stirrup Cay is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.) Of course, there are no cruise ships running during the pandemic. (The few small buildings that we can see probably house shoreside support personnel.)
There is another sailboat that has found refuge here south of Great Stirrup Cay—it was anchored much closer to the cay. A bit later we noticed yet another sailboat (possibly a catamaran) anchored at the east end of Great Stirrup Cay.
The wind was expected to shift more to the south as the day progressed—so, in the early afternoon we changed our anchorage by a couple hundred yards (to be in the lee of nearby Goat Cay) to keep out of the high wind. When we moved closer to Goat Cay, the water was a lot more calm plus we will be better protected when the wind shifts further to the south.
I spent a couple hours in the afternoon, developing and inputting seven intermediate waypoints for our trip back to the U.S. I double checked each one of the waypoints. Since we will be traveling in nearly a straight line, I didn’t need 6 waypoints at all but it breaks up the long trip and makes it seem less tasking. (Can you imagine starting out on a straight line trip with 20 hours and 10 minutes to go?)
After the waypoint development effort, we emptied all three diesel Jerry jugs that were on deck into the auxiliary fuel tank, so that the fuel is ready, if and when we need it. The 163-nautical mile trip (I estimate at 19 hours) should consume between 12 and 15 gallons of fuel according to my calculations and we have about 45 gallons (3 times what we should need) onboard and ready to use. It is difficult to determine how much we will gain by motor-sailing and the boost from the Gulf Stream, but both will help considerably.
 |
| I hate the design of the no-spill nozzle on the new Sceptre-brand Jerry cans! |
Second Stay Over Day on Great Stirrup Cay
I was awoken by water dripping on my head. As I looked up there were water droplets on the overhead hatch screen. Apparently it rained lightly at some point during the night.
 |
| Evidence of last night's light rain, still preserved in the morning. |
Throughout last night I could hear the pounding surf on the opposite side of the little nearby island, Goat Cay—it was calming. While we had a nice cool breeze blowing into our hatches, there was very little boat motion. It was a pleasant night for sleeping.
As the sun was coming up (6:45 AM), the morning wind was coming from due south and was much stronger than it was during the night (or yesterday)—it was expected to reach 22 knots today (with a sea state of over 4 feet out on the ocean) and it certainly seemed likely. This was the last day of our 2-day weather-caused delay on Great Stirrup Cay.
A Book Review of Clapton by Eric Clapton
A couple days ago, I finished reading Eric Clapton’s autobiography as an audio book. In many ways Eric Clapton’s life and Elton John’s life were similar in that they were both born in England into dysfunctional families, had a natural attraction to music early in their lives, both started out primarily with musical instruments but ended up as vocalists, and both became involved with alcohol and drugs and had to go to rehab for months (sometimes twice) to kick their addictions. They both became heavily involved in social causes late in their careers, Elton John in AIDS research and treatment, and Eric Clapton in setting up an addiction treatment center on a Caribbean island.
 |
| The cover of Eric Clapton's autobiography. |
As one of the most prolific guitarists of my time, Eric Clapton had hundreds of guitars, each one had a special tone and had its own unique name. One of his guitars sold for nearly a million dollars at auction to help finance his addiction treatment center.
----------
I figured out a way to fix the short coming of the nozzle in the Scepter-brand fuel jugs. I made a large wooden washer that fits over the nozzle and provides a captured stop to prevent the nozzle from slipping into the fill connection while still providing something to act as a stop to butt the Jerry can against. (I will make this fix in Vero Beach.)
----------
We spent most of the day reading and resting for tomorrow’s 19 to 24-hour journey back to the U.S. The wind had calmed down considerably in the afternoon as I rechecked the weather for tomorrow’s trip:
Noon - Saturday: 12 knots SW; Sea State = 1.3 feet
6 PM - Saturday: 13 knots S; Sea State = 1.3 feet
12 PM - Saturday: 13 knots SSW; Sea State = 1 foot
6 AM - Sunday: 10 knots SSW; Sea State = 0.9 feet
Noon - Sunday: 10 knots SSW; Sea State = 0.8 feet
As I was updating my blog, a brief rain shower blew through the anchorage—it lasted all of 10 minutes! We no sooner got all the hatches closed and it was over.
----------
We will be leaving Great Stirrup Cay tomorrow at noon and will be motor-sailing directly to Fort Pierce and then onto Vero Beach. It will take between 19 and 24 hours. Our next blogpost will be published from Vero Beach FL.
Stay healthy and thanks for following our blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment