Spanish Cay Marina to Great Sale Cay, Abacos, Bahamas (anchored)
May 30, 2022
We had a bunch of different kinds of weather heading from Spanish Cay to Great Sale.
It was cloudy and warm when we left.
Then there was some surreal clouds and odd light on the water. We slowed down as we got to the much lighter colored water – it was just so weird to see the color change that abruptly when there was no change in depth on the charts.
It was just a sandy bottom illuminated a hazy break in the clouds. The sun was definitely not out.
And then the clouds started building even more and we could see curtains of rain all around us.
The captain added rain gear to deal with the deluge. The best mate fled down below as the rain increased and the temperatures dropped. Fortunately, there was not a dramatic increase in wind (yet).
Great Sale Cay is an uninhabited island that’s got a bunch of scrubby plants growing on it. It’s “claim to fame” is that it is a decent anchorage that’s between Grand Bahama and the better (more fun) Abaco Islands.
We were one of two boats in this anchorage. We were in 12 feet of water and we set out 105 feet of chain wth a 25 foot snubber. We set the anchor alarm and settled in to catch up on Peaky Blinders.
And then…the anchor alarm went off as we moved in a big gust of wind. John looked out the portlight and told me that we were not dragging the anchor BUT we needed to button up Lailia very quickly. I assumed that a rain band was moving in.
After we secured all of the hatches and portlights, John let me know that he had spotted a waterspout maybe a mile from us. To our great relief, when we checked again, the waterspout was receding into the clouds.
Guess who did not sleep last night? Guess who did?
We will make the 50 nautical mile journey to West End, in Grand Bahama, in the morning. From there we will check out of customs so we can head back to the United States.
Life on Lailia 