We on the other hand, can travel faster but decided to stay within a couple of miles and enjoy the cruise across the Bahamas Bank. It was absolutely gorgeous. No sea swell, small less than one foot waves that settled down to no waves. The blue water became crystal clear appearing almost as though we were looking through an ephemeral gas, easily able to view the star fish and flora 20 feet down.
Spencer slept soundly in the helm chair beside me while Sophie nestled up to Beth on the couch in the galley. It was calm enough that Beth finished her trashy Nora Roberts love story and took the helm, while I nestled up to Sophie for a 20 minute dog nap. This reminded me of the dreamy days we had on Doc's Holiday, but of course it wasn't to last.
The VHF radio cracked to life with Linda calmly asking, "Betsy do you see the water spout off your port side?"
I looked behind me on the port side just in time to see a water spout about a mile away. Huen, later described it well. He said, " A white funnel cloud seemed to suck up the water into the overhead cloud. It swelled and turned black and then it started to rain."
Spencer picked up his head when he heard the fat rain drops start to hit the windshield.....I immediately picked up the boat speed to 16 knots and "got out of town!" Sorry, Lucky One but we had enough of that crap on our trip with Doc's Holiday to Maine, when our boat couldn't out run one....It turned our boat around! (see 2012 Delaware Bay) Fortunately, Lucky One stayed ahead of the storm and had the same calm trip that we had all the way to Chub Cay.
We were about 2 hours ahead of them but they called us when they were only 4 miles out. It seemed to take them forever to come into the marina because, they were told on the VHF in no uncertain terms:"Please exit the marina immediately! You are pumping oil out of the port side of the boat. DO NOT ENTER!" This was not an easy task since an afternoon storm had increase the winds to 20 knots. They shut down their bilge pumps and let the marina know they had secured the oil and were allowed to come in and take the slip beside "Betsy".
Huen had checked the engine room two hours prior to arrival and everything was fine. "Something let go!." he said. Linda commented, " He came up out of the engine room with oil splattered on his face!"
He was told not to wash the streaming oil off into the water, so he launched his dingy and wiped the oil off with rags. His plan is to keep adding oil and reassess when we get to Nassau where he may be able to effect repairs.
The marina's attention to Lucky One was soon diverted to an even bigger problem. One of the fishing boats was pumping out voluminous amounts of diesel fuel!
Chub Cay is a resort fishing village. The girls decided they wanted a fancy night out dining so we made reservations for 8:30. Evening wear was in order. Linda appeared in a sexy little black evening dress and Beth in a coquettish white open shouldered summer dress. Dinner was superb with fresh Mahi and a bottle of red wine. The boats radiated blue, red, green,and purple lights that punctuated the darkness and infused a sultry end to our fine dining.
Tomorrow we plan to head the 37 miles across the "Tongue of the Ocean" to Nassau. The question in my mind is...."Will Lucky One make it?"
Boat looks good
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