Onward Across the Great Bahama Bank

The sun arose with the old light tower  on Gun Cay in the foreground and Cat Cay just to the south.  An overnight of motor sailing under our full main across the Florida Straits allowed us to transit the narrow channel and onto the Great Bahama Bank under the 08:00 sunshine.    Once clear of the reefs and shallow sand bars along the western edge of the banks Otto, our electric auto pilot, took over the helm.  The remainder of the day we continued to motor eastward across the crystal clear and nearly windless waters.

windless clear waters off our bow as we motor across Great Bahama Bank

After 58 NM of motoring across the banks and 29 hours after we departed Boot Key Harbor, we chose to anchor off Northwest Shoal, on  the eastern edge of the Banks rather than push on another 15NM to Chub Cay.

When  our anchor struck the sand and C’est la Vie’s engine fell silent at 19:01 on June 3 we had covered 180NM in 30H39m.  We be not proud sailors to say that our engine run time during this passage was 28H56m.  But diving into clear, 86⁰waters as the sun set across the banks easily washed away any guilt.