Suliere's Blog

Friday 26th April 2013

Our destination today was Staniel Cay and for the very first time since leaving Florida the NE wind was on our beam.  We already had the main up  and realized his left us with no excuse….  Now that we’d revamped our screecher with a non torsion rope in the leech and cockpit furling going to the new electric winches for the sheets,  this meant for this short 12 mile trip we had no excuse but to baptize our new screecher system.

Initially the wind was blowing between 8 and 15 knots at about 260 degrees to us so with great trepidation and expecting something to go wrong (after 3 years of multifarious issues you become a little nervous!),  Paul manually unfurled the screecher whilst Lesley used the new electric winch to take up the load on the sheet.  Lo and behold to our amazement we had a perfectly flying screecher and with that came the additional speed as we screeched along at 8 or 9 knots.  The apparent wind  shifted to 60 degrees off our port bow, the very limit for this sail.  The wind stubbornly remained  at 60 degrees for most of the trip but gradually increased in strength. As we neared our waypoint on approach to Staniel Cay the bearing of the following waypoint precluded the use of the screecher and as the wind strength was 20 knots we had no choice but to take it in.  This time Paul used the electric winch at the helm to furl whilst Lesley manually controlled the sheet on the new winch.   For future use we’ve decided that we should shield the screeched a bit more with them main before taking it down.

For the remaining 4 miles we used the Genoa and main and because of the gradual increase in wind velocity, achieved speeds of up to 10 knots. Paul filmed the screecher sailing and its reefing.

We’d had a great sail and arrived at the busy anchorage of Big Major Spot just a short dinghy ride to Staniel Cay. We anchored in just over chart depth 2meters of water in good holding and the Rocna set herself as well as ever.  It had been a great but all too short sail the baptism of the screecher had gone smoothly.

As we settled in and planned our evening meal, along came Phyllis and Bill from ‘Oh My’ that we had met several time sin Warderick Wells so we all decided to go ashore and have dinner together.  So we all set off in  Slurpy to Staniel Cay to explore the culinary delights on offer.

Phyllis and Bill Our Cruising Buddies

We arrived at the dinghy dock outside the yacht club where Phyllis and Bill disembarked and I held the line while Paul organized the security cable.  Whilst chatting to Phylilis Lesley heard a loud  ‘Spladoosh’ and on turning around to see the cause saw the top of Paul’s head disappearing under the water.  We all gasped in amazement and then saw that Paul bob back up clutching his new torch.  It would seem that a stretch to far to save his beloved new flash light had cost him a dunking!

Taste and Sea Cafe, Food on Bahamian Time.

So after returning to Suliere for dry clothing we head back to the restaurant to join Bill and Phyllis, Paul having gone the extra to increase his appetite.  On entering the bar we should have taken heed of the sign which read  “One Line, One Cook, Good Food Take Time’ we placed out order and chatted while we waited….. and waited….. and  waited.   Some 2 hours later we were happy to each receive a good plate of food.

It had been a day of memorable moments…… ‘Spladoosh’