Georgetown to Mayaguana

We left Georgetown around 8:30 after saying goodbye to Stray Cat.  We motored about half the day and sailed half the day.  We caught 2½ fish. First another Mahi Mahi, but we threw him back because he was just a little guy.  Then another Marlin, and we threw him back because the meat is too tough and we didn’t like eating it.  Last we reeled in another Mahi Mahi and in my mind was already making fish tacos, but when Preston went to gaff it that slippery bugger spit out the hook and got away.  This was after Dan reeled him in for 20 minutes!  We were only going to sail to Long Island which was 30 miles away, but when we were rounding the Cape Santa Maria around 2:00pm we decided to keep going and get to Rum Cay another 23 miles that evening.  Shortly after we passed Long Island Preston started not feeling very well.  He spent the rest of the day trying his hardest not to get sick.  We pulled into Rum Cay around 11:00pm dodging coral heads in the dark, dropped the anchor, and hit the sack.  We spent the next day in the bathtub waters off Rum Cay.  Exploring the reefs with at least 100’ visibility!  These have been the most intricate reefs we have seen so far.  Almost tunnel like at some points.  We had no luck spear fishing and went back to the boat.  The next day we left around 7:00am headed for Clearance Town on Long Island.  We had the sails up all day, but had very little to no wind and made an average of 3 knots.  A few times during the day I glanced down and we were only going .8 knots.  We again changed course for 11 miles south of  Clearance Town and anchored in Little Harbor.  If it hadn’t been for the bugs, this was one of the prettiest anchorages we have stayed at yet.  We pulled in just as the sun was setting, dodging fishing nets for the last couple miles, and we were surrounded by a gorgeous landscape.  Then the bugs started biting as we were dropping the anchor, and they continued to find their way into the boat all night.  These “no-see-ums” as people call them are so small they fit through the screens on our windows and doors and ¾ of their body is a giant pincher.  They love to bite and we spent that night hiding under the covers dying to get out of there.  We were trying to leave at 6:30 the next morning, but the engines decided they had had enough and were not going to start today.  After an hour of working on them they were running good enough to get us out of the anchorage.  We were bound 30 miles Southeast to Crooked Cay.  Again as we were on our way we changed course and decided to pull our first overnight and get to Mayaguana 150 miles away and our last checkout point for the Bahamas!  We motored ¾ of the distance, because the wind was on our nose almost the entire way.  We had a short leg where we were able to sail, which was the smoothest and fastest we went all day or night.  I took the first shift from 10:00pm-12:30am, Dan took the next shift from 12:30am-3:00am, and Preston took 3:00am-5:30am.  We anchored behind a reef to protect us from the waves at 6:30am and instantly went to bed until noon.  After the day Preston got sick he now takes a Dramamine everyday we are sailing just to be safe.  We moved the boat closer to shore the next day to tuck in away from the elements to have a less bouncy boat.  This move was better done in afternoon light with the sun high above so we could see and dodge all the coral heads and shipwrecks!  We may be here in Mayaguana a few days as we wait for our weather window to make the 50 mile pass to Turks & Caicos.