Passage to Fresh Creek Andros

After windsurfing in Bimini for the afternoon (and getting sunburned) we cooked burgers on the grill and the ate them in the cabin to escape from the heat of the day in the air conditioning. After the burgers we had a pow wow about what to do next.

Bill was coughing a lot and his head was congested. He was a major trooper up to this point, making the passage from Key West and even windsurfing while sick, determined to have fun :). But SCUBA diving as obviously going to be too much, at least in Bimini. So after talking about it and our options we decided to head to Fresh Creek Andros, where Devante's Dream had been last year. We thought about Chub Cay as well and actually called over there on the new cell phone but they don’t have a dive outfit setup there yet. So Fresh Creek it is.

We moved over to the fuel dock and put on our 10 gallons of diesel (not much for going 165 NM) and I checked out of Bimini Blue Water Resort and Marina and set sail at 6:15PM. However, we had to douse sail as soon as we got out of the harbour as the wind was going with us so it was faster to motor. Bill and Mike are getting great practice setting and dousing the sails. We headed for North Rock off of Bimini and then turned to the east.

Just after we turned the wind picked up out of the south at 20 knots. It was probably there all the time just being blocked by the island. We set sail again and then enjoyed at beautiful sunset under a full head off sail going 8 knots… Very nice.

We stuck to our two hours shifts after 10:00PM. Bill had the first real night shift at 2200 and watched the moon rise. Then he had the 0400 to 0600 shift and made the North West Passage (just a few hundred yards wide in the dark which he called "threading a needle") and then watched the sun rise….

That day we gruelled through the passage the Andros against the wind. Eventually putting the sails away and just motoring. Bummer.

We made it to Andros by about 1400 just as a thunderstorm hit the area. Driving rain and low visibility. I was glad that I had been here before so I knew what to expect. Just as we were about to enter the harbour the low clouds cleared and we had good visibility. Two power boats that had passed us on the way over where waiting outside the harbour. When we went in they followed us. Evidently they were not familiar with the harbour entrance but were happy to follow a deep keeled sailboat in! When we docked the sun came out and baked us to a crisp….