We’ve spent a few days on the west side of Eleuthera, finding good spots to anchor with some shifting winds. It can be tricky to find protection from the south and west especially on this island, so we are always keeping an eye on the weather and planning ahead.
We’ve had more wind, 15-20 knots, so we’ve also had good sailing! It’s like a math word problem to think about where the wind will be coming from each night, where there is an anchorage that provides protection from waves and swell (residual from high winds up to a day before), and which direction we can sail.
For the first time, we caught a fishing float in our prop. We are always on the lookout for these when we are underway, but they can be very difficult to spot. It necessitated Jim doing some underwater work to cut it free.
When we choose an anchorage, we are looking for a place with good holding on the bottom (sand is the best) and a short distance from land so the wind can’t whip the waves up very much on their way to us. Careful planning can make the difference between a relaxing night with gentle rocking and an uncomfortable night of bouncing and rolling. We have great confidence in our “ground tackle” (anchor and chain), so fortunately we are thinking about comfort, not worried about safety. The anchoring here is usually good: the water is very clear, so we can see exactly where we drop the anchor, and the bottom is usually clear sand, which provides good holding. Furthermore, there is lots of space in the anchorages, so we increase scope if we are worried about wind. Scope is the multiplier of depth to anchor chain length, and we typically do 6:1. If we are anchored in 10 feet of water, a 6:1 scope would have us put out 60 feet of chain. If high wind is expected, we increase the scope to 10:1. The longer scope helps keep the anchor dug firmly into the bottom.
Watching the weather and wind forecast led us to seek out a well protected harbor between the northeastern end of Eleuthera and Harbour Island, a resort island with famous rose colored sand beaches. To get to Harbour Island we had to navigate a reef called The Devil’s Backbone. Supposedly, more ships have sunk on this reef than any other reef in all of the Bahamas. Many people hire a local pilot to guide them through the reef. Because we had calm weather and seas, we decided to do it without a pilot. Happily, the transit was uneventful, but we can see why people hire local assistance, especially when the conditions aren’t so perfect. We are safely anchored here and waiting for Anne’s cousin Tim and his wife Kate to arrive today.