Cape Bowling Green

[Kyle]As planned, our next leg required a 3:30am departure to be sure to complete it before dark. Getting away was easy, just head straight away from the reef until the depth sounder reads forty meters, then turn right. We had alternating periods of no wind at all and just enough to move us at two or three knots, so we alternated between being relieved the engine was off and being relieved we were finally moving again (with the engine back on). We actually arrived at Cape Bowling Green with a couple of hours to spare until darkness. We needed the light to carefully pick our way as close to the beach as we dared.

Such a shame we never made it ashore - there were (what we assume to be Sugar cane farm) fires in the distance - we much preferred the views of the sunset

This anchorage is notorious for being a lot worse than it would seem from perusing the charts. The tide flows quickly through here and it interacts with the swell to make a lot of chop. That's why we were trying so hard to get so far in, out of the worst of it.

The winds were light and out of the north, so we had perfectly flat seas for sunset. Overnight, the trade winds returned and we woke to rolling and the clunking sound of our refurbished steering system working all of its new fittings. We wanted to go ashore and have a walk around the uninhabited peninsula, but the wind and chop was too great to make getting in the dinghy for a soaking seem like a good idea, so we decided to save that for the next stop.