27. Across the Banks to Nassau

In the Bahamas, the word Cay is pronounced “key”. Gun Cay is just south of Bimini and now we were on our way to Chub Cay. We may do the Berry Islands on the way back but now we wanted to get to Nassau as soon as possible before the front which is forecast reaches us. We left by 5:00 and made our way over the Banks. The water is a beautiful aquamarine colour. The deeper the water, the darker the colour.

If the water appears very light and even yellowy in colour; it is very shallow and usually sandy. The dark brown areas indicate rocks or grass and until you are on top of it, you do not know which it is so it is wise to stay clear of it. In the Bahamas you are advised to steer by the eye as well as your GPS or charts. The water in the Banks is generally shallow and at one point, I stood on deck pointing out to Roman to go left or right to avoid the dark brown areas of water. We were crossing at high tide so we usually had about 3 feet below our keel but I was still nervous.

We made excellent time across the Banks, motor sailing at 6-7.9 KN., which is VERY fast for us. For a while we had both the jib and the main up and it was a wonderful feeling to be actually sailing for a change. Going through the ICW, we felt like a trawler. The sun was shining brightly and we sailed from the cockpit feeling the warm wind on our faces.

We arrived at Chub Cay about 3:30. We had covered over 70 KN. in 10 ½ hours. Our yellow quarantine flag went up. By law you are required to fly a yellow flag when you enter any foreign country’s waters until you check in with customs. Then you may fly the flag of the country in which you are in. We thank Jan from Jocklodge that gave us a quarantine flag when we were together in Vero Beach.

Just as we were pulling into Chub Cay, we saw C-Drifters and Superior Grace. They came by dinghy to say hi and told us they had cleared customs in Bimini and had been in Chub Cay for a couple of days. As soon as we had set the anchor we had to check if it had set well. Jack from Sadie A dived into the water with his mask and snorkel to check his and did ours. Then Peter and Sue checked it with their blue cut out pail that lets you look into the water. Then Roman went in with his snorkel, mask and fins to check it. Our anchor was surely the most secure of all the boats!