TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

    I was up at dawn (and a couple of times during the night) surveying the boat and re-reading the manuals and checkout papers. David had brought some of his fancy coffee beans and battery grinder so he was up early, too, creating a tasty brew.

    We sent the ladies off to Bobby’s and RiteWay to complete the provisioning and later went to the Yacht Club behind the marina for lunch. The skies had cleared out and the view was great from their deck overlooking Road Harbour. We ate our fill of fish and chips and returned to the boat to cast off.

    Sayula was a Mexican boat which won the first Whitbread Around the World Race back in the seventies and was also the name of our checkout manager. I found the twin electric screws quiet and forgiving while manuevering out of the crowded marina, and Sayula was impressed with our knowledge of the MarthaR’s systems. That was good because when we passed the large green harbour marker and headed into the wind we had fits raising the main and tacking the jib. Sayula was generous and gave us the thumbs up to drop her off and head out.

      During out short absence from the harbour, a large cruise ship decided to back off the dock and pirouette all over our intended route. We feinted left then veered right, finally deciding it was best to get completely out of the way. We watched in awe as the captain rotated the massive creature on its axis and dieseled away to the NorthEast. 

    A gentle docking to drop our benefactor off was followed by beating against a 15 knot wind to get to Marina Cay, our first night’s anchorage. I was thoroughly elated to be commanding a mighty sailing vessel, but the crew was not impressed when we tacked back and forth across Sir Frances Drake 3 times, making nearly no progress against wind and current. With our delayed start and the sun dropping, I relented and added the power of the 10 Kilowatt electrics to bring us to a safe anchorage just before sundown.