Exuma Park, Warderick Wells Exuma to Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera 44.03 NM

Sunday, February 27, 2011
Up at 6am to start stashing stuff and put on the coffee, then I went topside to watch the sunrise and sip some coffee. We were going to release our mooring at 8am but having missed the weather yesterday (on all counts) we figured that we’d need to hear Blue Yonder’s forecast at 8am first to make sure everything was copasetic. It sounded like it was still ESE at 15 knots but the waves seemed a little higher than Wayne liked. Brave heart that he is, we went anyways. He got a little green around the gills when we first went out. The waves were 4-6 ft on the nose until we were able to raise our sails and head off course a bit. Then it got a little better. The winds stayed with us throughout the day and the seas dropped about half way across Exuma Sound to Powell Point.

About 9:30am I was watching what appeared to be a school of flying fish jumping out of the water and flying along next to us. I thought that strange because they’re usually flying out of the water away from the boat, not along side of the boat. As I was watching about 25-30 flying fish traveling next to us I had to point this phenomenon out to Wayne because it was like a bunch of birds soaring along next to the boat. All of a sudden a beautiful Mahi came crashing through one of the waves airborne! A Mahi is a wondrous sight. They have all the colors of the rainbow just shimmering and changing depending on their mood. This one was chasing the flying fish out of the water! We watched him come soaring out of the water through the waves 3-4 times and I just couldn’t believe it! I was laughing and pointing like a maniac and had to yell on the radio to Azaya to keep an eye out because they were all heading up towards them. Right after that, a smaller group of flying fish followed the first and I could only speculate that it was the first Mahi’s mate, also hunting for breakfast, but we never saw this one break the surface.

At 11:00am I saw a tropicbird sitting in the water, then it took off in flight for a bit in front of us, then rested in the water, then took flight again. What a beautiful fairy looking creature with its long white tail. It must be a sea bird day, because later I saw dark birds along the water, then a flock of black and white birds resting in a clump between waves.

To make this a totally strange day, I had the oddest urge to sail naked. Yep that’s right, I said it. I had this over powering urge to strip it all off and sail au natural. The urge stayed with me for about 15 minutes because, what the heck, there’s nobody around us for at least 3-4 miles (Azaya) and not another soul arounddddd….. What a sense of freedom! Talk about letting go with the inhibitions! And, I haven’t had a drink! Wayne decided not to because there are parts of his anatomy that he reallly doesn’t want burned.

We were originally headed for Rock Sound but the sailing was so delightful. The seas calmed to 1-3 ft and the winds were still 10-15 knots. We decided that if the bank of Eleuthera was this calm too, we’d go on to Tarpum Bay and anchor there for the night. We radioed Azaya to see what they thought since they were so far ahead of us and they said it looked good on the bank so we continued on to Tarpum. That will shave another 10 miles off from tomorrow.

It was spectacular to watch the color of the water change from dark blue, to dark emerald green and bright emerald green where there were sandy patches. Parts of the coast of Eleuthera remind me of sailing along Lake Michigan. There’s parts of the shoreline where when we headed to Patti & John’s it was all tree line along rocky coast. That’s how parts of this looked. Large trees, rocky shoreline and not a house in sight. It made me a little homesick to sail the Great Lakes again. The town of Tarpum looks cute from the boat.

Oh by the way – No. I did not sail naked today. I thought that with these hot tropical/subtropical solar rays I’d burn parts that haven’t seen the sun since I was 8 or 9 years old! Had ya wondering though didn’t I!