We decided to leave West End for the Berries at 5 pm but only after doing one little thing that completely changed our entire thoughts on sailing, our emotional state of being, and our ability to stand the smell of each other and ourselves – we went for a swim. We were on our way to the washrooms when when we saw a sign for the pool, thought hat we would check it out and ended up jumping into a cold chlorinated wonderful pool. We hadn’t felt that clean and refreshed in some time. Funny, I had just finished reading an article written by a sailor telling of a time when he was so frustrated and down that he was ready to abandon ship with his credit card and passport, swim to shore and take the next flight home until one tiny gesture of a free lobster from a local turned everything around for him. I think that my response at the time was something along the lines of “yah sure, he is (akin to a holding tank. Both are full of ….)” but now I got it. We felt fabulous, our spirits were once again lifted. The only thing that could have made this moment better would have been if I had brought the bug spray with me because by the time we got back to the boat I looked like I had a second bought of the measles.
Our departure from the marina was uneventful. Ha, just give it a minute. Once we were in open water it was then that things got interesting. Apparently a change of scenery did nothing to convince the boat that another trip through the Bahamas was a good idea because when we changed course from heading west to south the gps stopped working, the autopilot stopped working, and the little picture of the boat on the chartplotter was once again headed towards the northern Atlantic coastline of the US. Oh, and we were headed directly into what little wind and good sized waves there was. I will skip over the next part but just know that any inappropriate-for-all-ages word that you can come up with would do just fine inserted here. And then, Tom suddenly had an “aha” moment – new batteries, batteries moved, autopilot sensor moved, maybeeeeee there is some interference. Down into the hole he goes with his tools as I hand and compass steer. Some time after dark we get the autopilot back. Huge relief knowing that we wouldn’t have to hand steer all night. The gps didn’t come back until some time in the morning but as long as we could fix a course that would take us where we needed to go we were happy. It wasn’t long before the autopilot came off – sailing around Freeport at night is like trying to navigate the 401 if there weren’t any lines in the road. Cargo ships and cruise ships were everywhere so it just made us feel better to hand steer. It was actually quite pretty with all of the lights from ships. So many were out there that the sky had an orange glow and the AIS looked like a Christmas display with all of the boat lights. Now something very very odd happens here – it was just after 9pm ish when I thought that I could hear a faint whistling and whirring sound and a bright neon green light off our starboard side (westward) caught my attention. “Flare” I yelled and pointed. Immediately Tom stopped and looked. It wasn’t a flare though because it was a much much bigger frayed ball of brilliant green light with a tail and it was headed not skyward but towards the water on an angle. What the heck was that? Seriously, what was it? If you know please let us know.
Once clear of the area the wind and waves started to pick up so it was time to pop my trusty Stugeron. We were to take turns on watch but “somebody” wouldn’t actually go to sleep even when he was supposed to. No point wasting a good chance to sleep so I curled up in the cockpit and waited to be woken for my turn at watch.
