S/V Geru: Back to the US

9 September 2008

After returning from Ottawa, we spent a few days putting the boat back together (sails on, cockpit enclosure back up, etc.) and picking up supplies for our trip back to the US. We ended up spending an extra day or two waiting for tropical storm Fay to pass by and allowing the seas to calm down. We had hoped to sail most of the trip back, however, the winds ended up being fairly light so it was yet another motorsail trip most of the way. We stopped at Black Point (Exumas), SouthWest Allen's Cay (Exumas), West Bay (New Providence), Chub Cay, and Bimini.

We decided we would do as much ocean sailing as we could on the way back rather than staying on the banks, as it is more direct and therefore faster. Our first day out (Monday, August 18) was a good one; we made it from George Town to Black Point. Our second day, however, was a bit much for us as we encountered larger ocean waves. The waves were 6 to 8 feet with a very short period. Swells would have been ok, but these waves were very uncomfortable and a bit scary. As we left the cut from the banks it was clear the waves were large, but we couldn't turn around because of the waves and current in the cut. We kept on going out hoping it might get better a little farther out, but it didn't. At our next chance, which happened to be at Staniel Cay, we ducked back onto the banks and had a much better (although still somewhat rough) day of sailing on the banks.

Our excitement for the day was not over yet, though - as we were entering the anchorage at SW Allen's Cay and turned off the autopilot to resume steering by hand, we found that the boat would not really respond to the wheel! Luckily we had enough steering control to make it in and anchor - we just had to turn the wheel about twenty times. It turned out that one of our hydraulic lines had chafed through (we guess in the rough seas). Geoff was able to put together a temporary fix with Rescue Tape and replenish the hydraulic fluid supply. The fix worked - he thought it might not hold once he repressurized the system, but the Rescue Tape did the job!

SW Allen's Cay was a private spot for us as we were the only boat in the tiny and very protected anchorage, but we did share the island with lots of iguanas which was really neat. They were quite large and almost menacing-looking. When we landed the dinghy on the beach, several iguanas started coming towards us out of the shrubs. We stayed for two nights in this anchorage to have more time to enjoy the cay, to fix the hydraulics, and to wait for Fay to move farther north as we were catching up to her. The Exumas felt deserted by this time. We only saw two other boats in the distance during our stay at SW Allen's Cay.

The next few days of our trip were fairly uneventful. We anchored at West Bay on New Providence Island for two nights and then spent one night at Chub Cay. We didn't go ashore on either island, but we went snorkelling around the boat and scraped marine growth off Geru's bottom.

The route from Chub Cay to Bimini leads over the banks and usually takes two days with an overnight stop somewhere on the banks. It is really quite amazing - 80 nm (about 144 km) without any land, but with the bottom clearly visible only 10 feet below the boat! During this leg of our adventure we experienced the worst "anchorage" yet. On Sunday (August 24), we decided to make it a long day (8:20 -22:50) to make it from Chub Cay to Bimini in one shot to save a day of travelling. Because we arrived at Bimini after dark, we didn't want to anchor too close to shore as we couldn't see anything, so we anchored on the banks just before Bimini. This turned out to be a mistake as we were in the natural channel where the tidal current comes on and off the banks, which, in conjunction with the wind, caused some pretty good waves making for an uncomfortable night of fitful sleep. The light pollution in this seemingly remote place really struck us. Bimini was a dark mass in front of us with a few red lights from the tops of tall masts, but the horizon was very light to the west in the direction of Miami and also to the north toward Freeport (on Grand Bahama Island).

On Monday morning we left the Bahamas for Fort Lauderdale. We had a pretty good motorsail across the Gulf Stream with only two or three small bands of rain getting us wet. The excitement of the day was when we were approached and hailed by a US Coast Guard Frigate. They asked for information about our destination, boat registry, and citizenship. Presumably because we are a Canadian vessel, they didn't ask to board us for a "courtesy safety inspection", which they did to the American boats travelling in our vicinity.

We have now caught up on our Bahamas blogs, photos, and videos. If you missed any of the blogs, they are now in chronological order below.