4-14 Morning came and again the wind was the same and up went the spinnaker. Again we sailed all day and decided to go further due to the ongoing wind. We spent 3 hours of the night off anchored off Memory Rock in 12 feet of water just a couple hundred yards from over 5000 feet of water. While setting the anchor I peered down in the water with my headlamp attached and noted all kinds of sea life swimming around beneath us. The sight reminded me of an old time movie reel running as my light illuminated a small spot of water below to reveal crabs swimming along at the surface and other creatures that I can only say looked like large mosquitos that glowed in the dark water. There was much more odd looking sea life moving about below that I wish I knew what they were, I guess I need to bring a marine biologist with me next time.
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Pictures from Spanish Wells
Budda Shack not published due to
poor internet |
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| Budda Himself |
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| Girls at Grabbers doing Tequila Shots |
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| Dancing at Grabbers |
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Karen and Linda going fast on water, Not
in a sailboat |
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| Path sign to Nippers |
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| View of Nippers from above |
We figured we’d get a few hours sleep and make our run to Fort Pierce Florida. So we set the alarm for 12:30 but we were up before that due to the wind picking up. Again we motored out of the anchorage and put up the spinnaker, I was a bit concerned about running it at night but it was clear and the weather was forecast to be settled except for squalls later in the day. We ran the spinnaker all night until about 4 in the morning the sail started flogging due to my inattentiveness. While the spinnaker flogged the sheet clasp broke free and shot like a bullet back to cockpit, the clasp hit the stainless that holds the bimini and got my attention real fast as the sail blew in the wind without the clew attached. Karen heard all the commotion and quickly woke up and took over the helm as I put on my headlamp and went forward to corral and bring down the sail. Fortunately the sail came down well and we quickly put up the jib and main. We changed direction a bit to sail better with the jib and main and I felt more comfortable not having the spinnaker up at night. We moved anywhere from 4.5 to 7.5 knots throughout the rest of the night , not too bad. Morning came and I went forward to examine the lines for the spinnaker. I found that the spinnaker halyard had started to chafe through also and there would be no more spinnaker until I replaced the halyard. We continued to sail all day even through a small squall that had a gust into the high 20’s. During the squall we hit over 10 knots with the help of the gulf stream current. I don’t think Karen was too happy with me keeping all the sails up but Last Mango handled it well. The last 3 hours we had to motor into Fort Pierce due to a dying variable wind. We spent the night at anchor outside Harbortown Marina with several other boats heading north.
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| Shortly after a small squall |
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| Last sunset in the Bahamas |
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| Last Mango safely at dock in Harbortown Marina, Fort Pierce FL |
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| Squall in the distance |
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| Reflection of Mango on the Bahama Banks |
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| Passing another sailboat sailing downwind. |
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| Another squall in the distance |
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| Another view of the squall |
The next day Karen and I were really wanting a day or two in a marina with real showers and a pool. Our new marina neighbors were kind enough to take us to the Fort Pierce airport to clear customs after I signed up for the customs decal online. After being at Harbortown for a day or two we decided to store Last Mango here for the summer and return to Illinois and spend time with family and friends. We're currently spending some time with Karen's parents in Viera Florida before driving up north. So hopefully we will see many of you this summer!
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