“Over Six Foot seas” Can Mean 10 to 15-foot Breaking Waves

Dominican Republic to the Bahamas

Checking out of the Dominican Republic was as involved as checking in, but less expensive. Five officials (Navy, Customs, Immigration, Drug enforcement & the local Commandant) came to Berkeley East to clear us out of the country. It does not appear that many boats clear out of the country at Cap Cana as they all stood on the dock until we pulled away to make sure we actually left.

Our plan was to sail along the coast of the DR, south of the Turks & Cacos, and then turn a little north for Mayaguna, Bahamas. The weather forecast was good for the first two days, then it looked like the seas and wind would pick up for the next five days.

We had a nice sail along the DR and around the Turks and Cacos making great time, escorted along by a large pod of dolphins.

As we approached Mayaguana, the seas had calmed down and the wind was in the mid 20’s. The morning forecast indicated that we should expect strong winds and over six-foot seas for the next week and it would generally be “ugly out there”. Since everything was good in the lee of the island and we didn’t want to get stuck in Mayauana for week, we decided to push on for Georgetown.

Once clear of the island, the seas and wind increased until we found ourselves in 25 – 30kts of wind with guest to 35 knots and 10 – 15 foot seas on the beam. The forecast for “over six-foot seas” was accurate, but a little misleading. They were right about the “ugly” part. With just a small scrap of main and genoa sails out we were still going too fast and would arrive in the dark. No matter what we did, we could not slow Berkeley East down enough to arrive at Georgetown, Grand Exuma in the sunlight needed to navigate through the reef.

We decided to practice heaving-to (a heavy weather tactic for stopping the boat in rough seas) to kill some time. This killed about an hour, but we were still going to arrive in Georgetown in the dark, so we found a spot in the lee of Long island where we anchored offshore, clear of the reefs in relatively calm water to get some rest and wait for sunrise.