On Island Time~Kayaking the Caribbean by Scott B. Williams

Author:Scott B. Williams [Williams, Scott B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-07-13T05:00:00+00:00

Six: Celebration

The north wind stepped readily into the harness which we had provided, and pulled us along with good will. Sometimes we sailed as gently and steadily as the clouds overhead.

—Henry David Thoreau

We hauled Celebration’s anchor on a Thursday morning and motored out of the anchorage at Stocking Island in company of three other boats that were also headed south. Though I had only been in Georgetown a little over two weeks, it seemed like much longer, and leaving these familiar surroundings and friends was almost like leaving home again at the start of my journey. Heron I was one of the other three boats accompanying us, but Lawrence and Laura only planned to explore some other islands in the southeastern Bahamas, since they had to be back in Winnipeg by June. I didn’t expect to see them again, as their smaller boat could not keep up with Celebration for long. We sailed east from Great Exuma to get around the north end of Long Island, the next large island in the Bahamian archipelago, and then I had what I thought would be my last conversation with my Canadian friends as they set a diverging course for the southeast end of that island.

The other two sailboats that left with us were headed to the Virgin Islands, and planned to make most of the same stops we would be making enroute. Texas Tumbleweed was a 44-foot ketch crewed by a family from Houston, and Cat Ballou was an unusual 33-foot cat-rigged cruising boat built by a Florida company called NonSuch. The couple sailing her were residents of St. Croix, and had flown to Florida to purchase the vessel brand new, and were now delivering it back to their home island.

Once underway, I found that Celebration’s modern rigging and controls were much easier to understand than those of the arcane but character-laden Whisper. When we had cleared the north end of Long Island and reached the safety of deep water, we set a course to the southeast, taking advantage of another cold front and its favorable winds. This was my first sailing experience under truly ideal conditions, and it was sheer joy once we cut off the engine and the powerful cutter-rigged vessel shouldered her way through the swell at an effortless 7 knots. The nearly new white Dacron of the sails stood out in sharp contrast to the impossibly blue sky that accompanied the norther. The autopilot, nicknamed “Charlie” by Jo and Frank, proved its worth as a virtual crewmember by taking the helm while we lounged on the cushioned seats of Celebration’s cockpit and watched the rugged windward coast of Long Island slide past our starboard beam.

Jo was the self-appointed navigator on Celebration, and she calculated that we would reach Providenciales, in the Caicos, on the third day after two nights of non-stop sailing. It would be my longest passage at sea so far. Frank said we would need to go onto a 4-hour rotating watch system, so that everyone could get adequate rest and someone was always in the cockpit to stay alert for shipping traffic.

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