March 22, 2008

Okay, I’m better now. I realize that my mini rant over Regatta could be construed as negative. It’s just not why we came to the islands and I’m still kind of in shock over how many people view this hyper-organized busy-ness as something desirerable.

So we were up and underway at 0700 and headed north for Cave Cay. We had the anchor up for about 15 minutes when Gary on Packet Inn called and said he was having mechanical problems. So Heart’s Desire and us dropped anchor while the Packet Inn’s did a little troubleshooting. It turned out to be something wrapped around his prop so we were up and under way again at 0900.

The trip out through the Conch Cay Cut was easy and uneventful. We found ourselves in the company of twenty or more sailboats headed north. Most of the other boats were headed to Galliot Cut. It’s a popular cut although I’m not sure why. Then again, all of these cuts can kick your ass with the right combination of wind and tide.

Speaking of having your ass kicked; we decided that we would enter the Banks through the same Cave Cay Cut that had given us a free beating just 2 months ago. We had timed our arrival to hit the cut at slack tide. In the event that we were a little late the tide would be turning to a flood tide so we would be able to ride the tide in with the breeze at our backs. Excellent.

Except that plans on a sailboat rarely workout. We got a push from an unanticipated current and arrived an hour early. So now we had current ripping out and a breeze blowing in. Damn. The Packet Inns and then Hearts Desire went in ahead of us and the transit was mellow but took a while as their boat speed was down to 3 knots for the half mile ride. We had our sails up so we were able to keep some speed as we alternately surfed waves and then sat in the troughs. All in all it went very well.

Once in behind Cave Cay we dropped the hook almost exactly where we had on the way south. After some chores and dinner we both slept like the dead.