Last night there was light breeze and a clear sky at bedtime that gave way to clouds and high atmosphere cloud-to-cloud lightening without thunder or rain. We awoke before it was light and pulled anchor just after 6:30am. The weather was forecast to be cloudy and  rainy later that morning, and we thought if we left early enough we could outrun it on the way to Palm Cay. The forecast for Palm Cay was for rain and thunderstorms in the later part of the afternoon, at which time we hoped to be docked by virtue of leaving Normans so early. We knew we were trying to thread the needle a bit, but the wind forecast looked really good, 12 – 17 knots from the South – just right for a beam reach on our NW heading. The sun rose aft of us lighting up a glorious sky. As soon as we got out of the narrow channel from the anchorage, we raised the sails, turned off the engine, and sailed the next 40 miles all the way to New Providence with very manageable 2 foot swell on the quarter. We managed 6 – 8 knots of boat speed the whole way, including zig-zagging through the southern edge of the yellow bank coral field. This part was made a lot easier since we got to the yellow bank around 11AM when the sun was in the perfect overhead position to see the coral heads under the water. We split duty at the helm, as Octavius (our autopilot) can’t sail to a wind angle until we get an anemometer to replace the one smashed in Bimini. Tommy gave Paula pointers which were much appreciated. Her arms are not as strong as Tommy’s, and she tends to oversteer, so tips on technique are welcome. As usual, we heard amazingly entertaining radio chatter. “Hey bud, watcha’ doin’?” This from one fishing boat to another. The baritone reply: “Oh, nothin’, just lettin’ my golden locks blow in the breeze.”

As we began the coral-strewn approach to Palm Cay Marina, we doused the sails. This would give us better control of our path between coral heads, plus we spotted an ominous anvil-shaped thunderhead forming quickly from some haze about 5 miles to the north. We didn’t want to get caught in a squall with our sails aloft. After turning up into the wind to douse the sails, we turned back to our course to see cascading sheets of rain and a large waterspout that had formed out of the thunderhead. Thunder and lightning could be seen and heard. We checked the radar, and saw that the scary mess was traveling  generally east and thankfully away from us. The storm clearly looked to miss us, so we continued on towards Palm Cay. Had the storm been coming at us instead, we would have stood out to sea to wait for the storm to pass.

As the main storm moved away from us, we only had to traverse a few rain bands on our way in to the marina. We were also aided in having done this once before and so had our old route track to follow on the chart plotter. However, we got to look nice and wet and salty in our rain gear as we entered Palm Cay. Amazingly, we got the same nice slip we had last time, but kind of by accident! When we called in on the radio for slip assignment, it was raining loudly and the radio was staticky, and we had a hard time hearing the slip number. The marina manager repeated it once, and then said, “The same slip you were in last time.” When we docked, it turned out the manager misremembered which slip we were in last time and actually meant another slip. We offered to relocate, but he said it was not a problem and we should stay where we were.

So, in a small way, it feels like a homecoming. We have been to this beautiful marina before and know the staff and the amenities. It also feels luxurious, as we now have electricity from the marina (this means air conditioning!) and water from the dock to substitute for our ailing watermaker. We missed lunch in all the excitement of sailing and the nearby storm, so Paula fixed a small treat of cheese, crackers, soppressata, olives and mustard. Then we cleaned up all the sailing gear and took long, hot showers in the marina facilities.

As a final treat to ourselves, we went out to dinner at the marina restaurant to give C Ghost’s cook a break. Tommy had Caesar salad and broiled fish sandwich and fries. Paula had a green salad with balsamic vinegar dressing, and the first hamburger she has had since Savannah in 2016. She had the full heart-attack-on-a-plate with cheese, mushrooms, onions and bacon, plus the fries. Dessert was chocolate espresso cake for Tommy and guava cheesecake for Paula. We then waddled back to C Ghost.