April 6 -10, 2021
Wedding over, time to hit the seas and head back to the Bahamas. We got our necessary COVID tests at Amanera, but we still had to get our Bahamas health visas and wait for the 7ft seas to calm down to 5ft, so we left the marina on Wednesday the 7th. We had a great sail and made it back the Mathews Town in Inagua, Bahamas, a little over 300 nautical miles in 42 hours. We dropped the hook at 2AM, and went straight to sleep. In the morning, the captain went ashore to check us in. This took over two hours because the Bahamas has implemented a new computer system in the month since we left, and it kept crashing. Jeff survived. I never left he boat. We had about 16 hours to spare before our covid PCR tests expired. Phew.
Today is why I titled this, “sailing is always fun.” We are under way right now, and it’s comfortable enough to blog. We are blasting along at over 8 knots, with 20 knots of wind, and 5 ft waves on our quarter. Don’t get me wrong, the boat is not still, but it’s a comfortable motion, and I was still able to open the fridge to make lunch without everything leaping out onto the floor.
Today is Type 1 Fun. This is the ordinary fun that land dwellers can understand. It’s sunny and warm, but the breeze is cool, the water is cobalt, and we’re going FAST. (8 knots, you might say, is not fast. However, we saw as much as 12 knots for a second, surfing down a wave. To further my argument, when 58,000 pounds of boat is hurtling through the sea, and careens down the side of a wave, let me assure you, 10 knots, which normally equals 11mph, in that moment equals about 80mph in a car. I rest my case, we are going fast!) Most of you, dear readers, are not sailors, so I thought you might get a laugh if I described the other two types of sailing fun:
Type 2 fun is when the sail itself is either, cold, wet, nauseating, or more likely, all of the above. The fun happens hours, days, or even years later, likely in a bar, when you relate your salty daring do, and that is most assuredly a satisfying, lasting fun, that is hard to replicate on land.
Type 3 fun is when the sailing gets “sporty”. This is sailor euphemism for dangerous. The waves and wind are both double the forecast. Something important breaks. Or, more likely, several important things break. You start thinking about revisions you won’t be able to make to your will, and that you wish you’d called your mother before you cast off. Type 3 fun is the most intense life affirming sort of fun, because it overwhelms you in a tidal wave of joy as you kneel down and kiss the dock after unexpectedly not dying. Everyone should have this type of fun every now and then, because you can’t possible appreciate life enough on a regular basis until almost dying reminds you of how passionately you love it.
I guess it’s a shame that today is only boring old type 1 fun, but I’ll take it. The fun was enhanced by having another boat we met following us on our 80 mile journey. They were a few miles behind, but have fallen so far behind, we no longer see them on the AIS. If 2 boats are sailing in the same direction, it is a race, after all. If this wind keeps up, we will do 80 miles in 9 hours! Only 3 more hours to go.