January 12, 2010.

The weather forecast turned out to be more like a wild guess in the dark. Christ, was he off. We were supposed to have 15 to 17 out of the north northeast for our trip to Flamingo Cay from Long Island. We had about 4 knots out of the northwest. As the day went on, our route gradually turned southward and the wind built a bit. With about 6 miles to go on our 55 mile day we were finally able to sail.

We arrived at the 3 palms anchorage on Flamingo with Far Niente and Kokomo. 3 palms is actually a misnomer since one of the 3 palm trees “blowed away” since the anchorage was named. So now we will call it 2 palms.

The wind built to 15 knots and then slowly moved around to the northeast and died away. This left us a small swell rolling through the anchorage. It would have been doable until the wind decided to come back out of the north and build to 20 knots. We were all protected from the wind but the swell was vicious and wrapping around the headland to the north. This left us all rolling side to side for hours. I’m talking about rail to rail in the water. Shit was flying everywhere as we tried in vain to catch a few winks. FYI, no winks caught.

We had planned to stay at Flamingo for a few days but there was no way we were going to risk another night without sleep. So the next morning we were up and underway at first light. As soon as we cleared the anchorage the engine was off as we headed south. It was very rough for the first few hours but the wind and seas abated as the day went on. It ended up being a very lovely sail to Raccoon Cay.