Friday, March 28, 2014

Eleuthera 52 mile sail

as good as sailing gets.....
IP32 Morning Grace and IP38 Moondance
Today was a day to sail across the Bight of Eleuthera. East winds at 20-25 gusting to 30. Course Northwest, sailing angle beam to broad reach. Waves 2-3 on the starboard stern quarter. The ride, smooth and comfortable. The autopilot sailing the entire leg holding the boat on the selected wind angle of 135 degrees, starboard reach. Boat speed ranged from 5-7 knots. We motored one hour in the am to charge up the battery bank, and we motored one hour at the end of the day to run into Current Cut. Island Packets are heavy yachts, but they really sail well in this kind of breeze. Running with our new boat buddies, IP32 MORNING GRACE and IP38 MOONDANCE, we all three had a dream sailing day and a safe passage through Current Cut. Tomorrow we will move 2 hours up to Spanish Wells where we will dock at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven. We need to wait out some unsettled weather, so we have selected to do that at a dock and enjoy the town. We are looking forward to this new destination!

Here are a few sailing photos of the 120 pictures I shot today!
IP32 Morning Grace at hull speed, beautiful sailing for Julie and Dixey

Island Spirit surfing at 7.34 knots in 25 knots

The chartplotter screen showing 7.0 SOG and the island of Eleuthera

The beautiful blue water and view from the cockpit.
The 135% jenny is furled to 110%

IP38 Moondance surfing the large swells. Great sailing, Nina and Bob

IP38 Moondance at hull speed, look at the stern wave
ako
IP35 Island Spirit surfing waves with the water rushing by

The day ended with a beautiful sky off our sterns at anchor
IP38 Moondance at sunset

Another great day sailing the Bahamas. This life is so fun, exciting, adventurous and enjoyable. Yes, we live by the weather and we spend too much time working on weather, but planning ahead makes for better passages like today.

PS:
I published a video of this sailing, but it blew up my BTCbahamas data plan when I tried to upload it. So I bought more data. I will try again tomorrow.....Data down here is $30 for 2 GB for 30 days only! I have only used 2 GB since March 1, today starts my second 2 GB plan. Not bad for all the blogging, photos and emailing I have been doing this month.

1 comment:

GregK said...

There's nothing like a sweet broad reach.

the temp and the beautiful water is just the icing.

Looks like it was a day to remember… Sweet.