Highborne Cay and the Green Flash

     The wind gods were kind this morning.  It was relatively calm, which gave us a window to repair the jib. The parts were waiting at Nassau Harbour Club Marina last week when we arrived, but it has been too windy since then to unfurl the jib to access the repair. The actual repair only took about 15 minutes and we are now back in full sailing mode.   

Magic

Mary Jean II

    Departure time was scheduled for 11 AM for our fleet, but we needed to top off our fuel before heading out. After topping off water, we had the marina read our meter and run the bill.   However, no one could enter or exit the marina until both of the 200 foot boats exited.  It is still impressive to see them maneuver with the bow thrusters to stay in the center of the channel once they make the turn from the inner harbor.  I would have like to have seen Magic make the turn in the inner harbor before coming out of the harbor.  Mary Jean had to make the turn before she backed into her slip so she simply motored out.  The pictures just do not do justice to their size. Oh yea, word has it Mary Jean II is a charter at $380,000/week.

    Now back to my real world . . .once the big boats had cleared the harbor, we were able to leave.  Our plan was to top off our fuel at Hurricane Hole Marina.  As we approached their dock, a large yacht was pulling away. However, we were waived away as another large fishing boat was “in the que.”  We called Nassau Harbor Club. Unfortunately, he had 2 large boats waiting for fuel, so we tried Brown’s and got lucky to find only one boat at the dock with room for a second. By the time we completed our fill up, Brunelle and Andiamo were just passing by in the channel.

     We headed southeast towards Highborne Cay.  The heavy seas that were predicted were nowhere to be found. We had a favorable breeze, about 10 knots from the north. We were able to actually cut our “iron jenny” and simply sail for a while.  We were able to drop anchor at Highborne Cay around 4:30.  Dan made the rounds doing anchor inspection. Andiamo seems to be most successful with her 2000 RPM reverse once the anchor was down.  Tonight, for the first time, we saw the green flash at sunset. I was uncertain of what I was going to see.  It was the last moment, rays of the sun as it sets changed from yellow to a slightly greenish tint; and then it was gone.

    Martha had baked one of her delicious Key Lime pies.  We were invited to share dessert with them and their son and daughter-in-law after sunset. We thanked them, but declined due to my cold.  We used the time instead to catch up with our kids.  It is such a great feeling, when we talk to the “kids” we feel the same way today as we did all those years ago when they would tell us of a grade they received or the goal they scored. No let me amend that.  .  . It is an even deeper, better feeling.

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete