Up again at 5:30am, once Salty had done his business onshore, we left Bimini by 6:30am, just in time to watch our 2nd sunrise in a row at 7am.
The breeze was strong (12-19 knots) and from a near perfect direction.(southeast). So on a heading of 18-25 degrees north-northeast on a starboard broad reach we made great time by taking advantage of the Gulf Stream current averaging 6.7 nmph sailing nearly all the way (for you non-sailors that's freakin amazing!)!!
We hit a Midnight Sun II record top speed of 8.7 nmph (Speed over Ground or SOG) surfing down waves under full sail! The wind was coming over our starboard aft quarter.
Around noon we each took sunshots using the sextant and calculated our latitude and longitude to within a couple miles using pencil & paper to go along with our 4 GPS devices, AIS radar, chart plotter and iPads. We are very happy with these offshore passages so far...
Saw lots of freighters in the shipping channel and more flying fish.
Arriving at West End, Grand Bahama Island at 4:15pm for a 9 hr 45 min crossing, just in time to tie up and go for a swim at the beach then button up the boat before the rains came.
We just cooked/ate a delicious chili on board with the winds howling around us at near gale force. The weather forecast says we should stay here all day Thursday to wait out the passing of this storm before we head across the Little Bahama Bank to the Abacos.
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