Jan 21, 2015 Morgan's Bluff, Andros

Yeah, we made it to Morgan's Bluff.  What a trip!  The weather guy was wrong, and when we left on Tuesday, Jan 20th, it was predicted to be about 2-3 foot seas and winds 20 knots, but decreasing in the early afternoon.  Well as far as Bitts and I were concerned, the winds and seas never calmed down (25+ knots), and  the swells were big, so it was a rough passage until we reached the Bahamas Banks the next morning.  There were 8 boats in all crossing from Marathon.  Three of them decided to go to Rodriquez Key and spend the night, then on to Andros.  One started to join them, then changed his mind and caught up with us.  There were 3 single handlers behind us.  They get really tired by themselves, so there was a lot of "yakking" going on the radio all night long.  They seemed to think Rich was in charge since we were the lead boat, so everyone would call him with questions.  Rich and Kathy only took cat naps, and Bitts stayed up all night long.  I finally got tired, propped my paws on the settee for support, and went to sleep.  Rikava was the only boat to make the trip non-stop.  The rest of them anchored on the Banks to get some sleep.    Good thing Rich has radar on the boat.  They were following a big tanker on the radar, until it crossed in front of us about 1 mile away.  We actually had to slow our speed to let it pass.  Then there was the orange and red clouds on radar that gave us a few good downpours, but they didn't last long, and there was no lightning or added wind.   It got a little scary at one point, when Rikava lost the alternator and tachometer.  Rich was afraid we would lose all power, and that would have been a bummer to lose the auto pilot and have to steer by hand all night.  He even plotted a course back to Dinner Key near Miami.  I guess he went into the engine compartment, wiggled some wires and everything came back on line...whew!  I hope Kathy sends you some of the most spectacular pictures of our first Bahamas sunrise.  When you enter the Bahamas Banks you go from thousands of feet to about 16 feet of water.  Boy, the beautiful tourquoise water made the trip all worth it.  It took us 34 hours to get to Morgan's Bluff, and we were all exhausted.  Rich went to put the anchor down in the outer harbor, but yikes, no power to the windlass.  We were lucky to have the engine running, so went to the inner harbor, where the nice dock master helped us tie up to the fuel dock.  Kathy and Rich went to Willies Water Bar for a drink, then a quick dinner, and some badly needed zzzzzs.