May 28, 2014
And we have a picture of the rock there to prove it, The Center of the World Rock. I think the person who named the rock must have had a really good sense of humor to have thought of that name.
Center of the World Rock
What a hoot!
Early in the morning, while the wind was calm, we motored the short distance across the Sea of Abaco, to go to Coopers Town. This time the tide was high and we had no difficulty reaching the ladder to the public dock. At the public dock we met a young local man who was sitting on the bench of the dock when we came up to it, and he promptly came over and took our dinghy painter (the rope attached to the dinghy, used to tow it or tie to a dock), and held it for us while we climbed the ladder. Michael was beginning his day off work by sitting on the dock in the quiet of the morning. He was a delightful gentleman who lived at Coopers Town but worked on Greater Guana Cay. He told us he had to take the ferry to work everyday. We’ve found in talking to other local people, this is a common thing to do in the islands. A lot of people travel via ferry from different islands to go to work at businesses where tourists frequent- restaurants, resorts, marinas, etc. Some of the children we talked to also take the ferry everyday to go to school.
We found out, in talking to Michael, there is no longer a museum in Coopers Town. We had wanted to go to the museum, so we had asked him about it. Thus, our time in Coopers Town was short live.
When we got back to White Swan, Gary pulled up the Sirius radio to check the Gulf Stream weather. It is a good thing he did. He found out the wind was going to be from the East and Southeast, and light, for three days, and then turn and have a Northern component to the direction. We don’t like the wind to be from any northerly direction when we cross the Gulf Stream because opposing wind going south hitting the Gulf Stream, which flows north, makes for a rough crossing. So, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and boogie on up the Sea of Abaco and get into position to cross the Stream before the wind clocks to the north, not knowing when the next opportunity to make a crossing might present itself.
Sailing past a Fish Mud (lighter water), where hundreds of bonefish stir up the sand on the bottom.
Gary really wanted to sail, since our time to sail in the Bahamas was quickly coming to an end. He put both sails up soon after we left Coopers Town, but the wind lessened, and he had to drop them and start the motor. A few hours later, the wind picked up enough for him to put the sails back up. We got to sail most of the afternoon. Around 3:00 PM, I was at the helm, while Gary took a short break, when I saw a strike of lightening and dark clouds off to the west of us. Gary promptly went on deck and dropped the sails, just in case the storm were to come our way. Fortunately, it did not, and we safely got to our anchorage at Great Sale Cay around 6:30 PM. It took us about a half an hour to find a place to anchor for the night. The anchor kept skipping on the bottom. The first two spots where we tried to drop anchor must have had marl for the bottom. At the third spot, we finally had success in getting the anchor to hold.
At 10:00 PM that evening, I saw lightening off to the west again, as I was reading in the salon. Gary had already gone to bed, tired from a very long day of piloting White Swan many miles up the Sea of Abaco.
May 29, 2014 AM
What a bouncy ride we had during the night at Great Sale Cay! The wind shifted more to the south when the storm passed to the west of us, positioning White Swan more vulnerably into agitated water. Gary can sleep through anything, but not I. By 6:00 AM, we were both wide awake. I went to the cockpit to enjoy the beauty of the sunrise and listened to the songbirds on the small uninhabited island while Gary made our morning lattes. He soon joined me in a brief quiet time before we started the motor and left the anchorage behind us.