February 12, 2001 -- Underway ... to the Dock!

At 1233 GMT (0733 EST), we raised the anchor and headed for Black Point in the Exumas, or at least planned to. The winds indicated that we would be in winds of 15 knots with sees of two to four feet. The wind was nicely in our sail area, so we decided to sail. We went fully under sail at 1301 GMT. However, I watched the wind climb and the boat heel over until I was very uncomfortable with it. I appealed to Mike and we decided to reduce sail further and motor sail. About the time the wind hit a steady twenty knots, and we were seeing solid six foot waves, we decided it was the better part of discretion to turn around and go back to the Cape Eleuthera Marina at Powell Point. We had been underway for approximately an hour and a half. Once we turned around, we headed closer in to shore before turning North. Thanks to the wind break that Eleuthera gave, the seas quickly subsided from six down to less than three feet. We tied up at the marina at 1700 GMT. Instead of the wind being 15 knots, it was steadily blowing 18 with gusts as high as 25! After a suitable rest, and lunch, Mike and I again worked on the recurring problem with the tach. We ran a new power feed to it and removed both of the step-down converters from use. We will see if that makes any difference. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading.