Rolianne Afloat and Abroad

  As I am writing these lines, we are having two days of 25-30 knts East winds. We are anchored at Black Point, so the bay is protecting us from the big waves.  Still, I have to be honest, I am not a big fan of really windy days. I hear you judging me right now. 😅 You live on a sailboat Cat!!! It’s just that when the winds blow stronger than 20 knts, I feel like we are so exposed to the elements. The boat rocks one side and the other, moving at the end of its chain. When the wind hits the boat on its side, we can heel a couple of degrees. The anchor sometimes drags, too. Just like when we were anchored infront of Whale Cay and Little Whale Cay, waiting for the winds to calm down, where it dragged and brought us way too close to shallow waters, and we had to start the engine and move a little further. The charts were not exactly right, so we thought we had plenty of space to drag. Or when we were in Nassau, in the middle of a squall, and the anchor dragged, bringing us too ...

We finally had a last minute window to cross to Nassau on the 10th, so that’s what I did on my 40th birthday! Motorsailing for hours with the winds in our face, but OH! the excitement when we arrived in the channel, passing the oversized cruise ships onboard Rolianne, trying to imagine what it was like back in the pirates’ days...  After a good meal and a beer at the Green Parrot to celebrate, we went back to the boat, exhausted. No party night for me this year, that’s for sure! To top on my exhaustion, a squall passed by and our anchor dragged with the strong winds, so we had to re-anchor in the rain, at night. My favorite moment of all... 😓 So I didn’t like Nassau that much after all. But the sunset was pretty. After provisioning for the Exhumas in the morning, filling up on fuel, water and food, we left after lunch for the Exhumas, heading to Allan’s Cay. It wasn’t that far, about 4h30 with the winds on our bow. When arriving close to Allan’s ...

At first, I didn’t really wanna spend time in Bimini at all. But then again, the winds decided otherwise. We got « stuck » there with 15 knts East winds for 5 days, waiting for our window to cross the Great Bahamas Bank. On our first day at Blue Water marina, we met George, our neighbor, when he invited us to check out the bull sharks at the dock. The next day, we had plenty of time to chat, so we talked about fishing, among other things. Really interesting person, whom we enjoyed talking to during happy hour. He invited us on his boat twice for me to catch my first wahoo or mahi mahi. I guess I was not meant to do so, as we didn’t even get a strike during both of our 5 hours trips out on the water!!! Romain came with me both times, and has been more than patient. Oh well, George was nice enough to give us fresh mahi for two dinners, and perfectly cooked wahoo on another night. Thanks again George!!!!  When I was not trying to catch a wahoo, we spent time at the beautiful beac...

Day 1 We are ready. We sailed from Key Largo to Pumpkin Key right before the sun goes down, and are now anchored close to the Key for protection. The wind is still strong from the East, at around 15 knts. Two other boats will be doing the crossing to the Bahamas. On the 31st, I wake up at 4h am, too excited to go back to bed. We all agreed to leave at first light. That happens to be around 7h, so I wait. Finally, 7h arrives so we start the engine and leave our anchorage. A bunch of dolphins are excited for us, jumping high in the air to wave us good bye. From Angelfish creek, we motor through the reef. The conditions are not ideal, with waves coming from the East. It rocks a lot, but we make it trough. After about 2 hours out there, our engine starts acting up!! Weird helicopter sound, not going over 2200 rpm. F***! We make the decision to turn around and sail back to Florida. What a disappointment!! We are not sure what went wrong... Once back to Angelfish creek, we anchor and chec...