A photo from the prior day since I was too occupied to take any today. Today did not look this pretty.

Saturday, March 3 – can you believe it’s March already? We’ve begun to feel like residents, after 68 days. Friday’s 48 nm sail might be the last good weather day for a while now. We anchored in Royal Island Harbor (nothing to write home about and the site of another suspended marina/resort project) near a Great Harbor 37 (red hull with white topsides) cleverly named Jack of Hearts. Could the owner’s name be Jack perhaps?

Up and at ‘em on Saturday for the 63nm trip to Abaco; see how the trips are getting longer? No problem with enough wind to sail today (18-21kts with a mid-day lull to 13) – no sir, but even Ms. Sails Well Close-Hauled has trouble at 170 degrees. A following sea is Ok though and boy did those large swells follow us all day. We tacked slightly off course, back and forth all day as we couldn’t sail fast enough off course to make up the extra distance. We had to be in and anchored before dark; and we did make it with time to spare- 5pm anchor went down and we were pooped after 10 hours.

About an hour into the trip, Jack of Hearts hailed us and we chatted the usual topics; where headed, nice boat, yours too, stable ride, weight, oh, from Maine?, our boat is a Maine Cat, see you in Abaco. Was good to know someone else was heading the same way, since our course basically takes us into the Atlantic Ocean.

Our ever-present third crew member, Herr Otto Pilot gets very cranky with large swells- he says “not so swell for me” and thus leaves the two remaining crew to the task of hand steering. The cut was a non-event at Little Harbor and we nearly overtook the monohull who’d left Royal Island 30mins ahead of us.