Hello Fellow Tradewinds Sailors,
We are back from our first bare boat charter trip. Matt asked us to send photos but we did not have good access to the internet in the Bahamas. The photos however do not express the essential nature of the trip. The main elements of our trip involved sailing in tee shirts and shorts, the feel of warm winds and the sense of discovery. The Abacos in land sea (about 40 X 7 miles) is quite different from the ocean; it is much more shallow with very little swell. The weather in April is usually good; they do get occasional storms but no hurricanes. Day time temperatures are about 80 and 65 at night. The basic charters allow one to travel from Marsh Harbour to Green Turtle Cay in the north and to Little Harbour (which was our favorite place) in the south.Our boat was a 36 foot Jeanneau from Sunsail which sailed well sometimes reaching 7.8 knots. Mostly winds were 10 to 20 knots.
We had the great good fortune to be sailing with our dear friends George and Teresa on their boat (a 32 foot Allied Sea Wind) for the first 5 days and then in tandem for the last 6 days. This trip was made possible by the fine lessons of Tradewinds Sailing Club (by Tony, Bill, Steve, Matt and Brandy) and by the kind and generous mentoring of George and Teresa. On our final day of sailing we had a glorious 20 mile run with the wind at our backs. It was undoubtedly a special peak experience.
-Mike & Pat O