February 6, 2018: 38.4 miles. About midway on this trip, we had to pass through Currrent Cut. This is an East-West cut through the main island of Eleuthra which can have currents of 10 knots to the East, and 7 knots to the West, depending on the tide, both faster than Olive can motor. It was hard to get accurate tide information here, and harder still to get current info. What we did find was that high tide on the west side of the cut was 1 to 2.5 hours after high tide in Nassau, and that minimum current was 2 hours later than that. This would be about 4:20 PM on the 6th, which was a bit too late to get anywhere before dark. We figured that since 4:20 would be slack current, that maximum current to the East would be three hours earlier or 1:30, and there would be another slack current at 10:30, three hours earlier again. We would expect current in the direction we were traveling for the entire time between 10:20 and 4:20. So we tried 10:20 and things worked out fine. We had a bit of a current with us (perhaps 3 knots), and we got to a nice anchorage, Alabaster Bay, about 30 minutes before sunset.

1 Comment

  1. David Reynolds and Alison Steiner Reply

    Spanish Wells feels like Wakefield and Galillee Rhode Island, where I spent summers as a kid, working on boats, fishing, and messing around. Everyone owned the waterfront, or no one. We all behaved well toward one another’s persons and boats.
    Love the story of getting through the gap! 10 kts current would be almost as steep as a waterfall! Yee Haw

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