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June 17, 2005
N24.0 W76.2 Galliot Cay, Exuma
We left Georgetown well before low tide (the channel is shallow) and began our journey northward to the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. Two challenges stepped into our path – first, the spedometre was not working again, and second, a massive electrical storm was bearing down on us. The loss of our electronic navigation equipment in the channel would have been devastating.
So, we pulled off to the side of the channel, dropped anchor, fixed the spedometre, waited out the storm, and got fully underway by 10am. We had an uneventful sail. We went through Galliot Cut at high tide, and dropped anchor just ahead of another sailboat. This would be our first experience setting anchor in a current that is stronger than the wind.
No issues setting anchor, with the current setting from the north, and the wind from the west. Then the tidal current shifted to the south, and the winds from the south, then it shifted again, and we were certain that we had wrapped the anchor chain around a few rocks, the keel, the rudder, the propeller, the dinghy, etc.
It was an unpleasant, uncomfortable, rolly-polly night. The currents, the waves, the Atlantic swells, all competing in a tiny little space. At first light, we weighed anchor with no issues (even though we spun around a few times following the chain’s path), and off we went, pounding back through the cut against a fantastically stong current.
Posted by dave at June 17, 2005 01:54 PM