AMBITION - Merrill et Cindy aux Bahamas

By this time I expect that most of you will be enjoying the departure of another winter and the delightful warmth of spring.

Ambition left Allen Cay in the Exumas 5 days ago after a great afternoon visiting the iguanas there - a great video! After a fantastic 50 mile sail north, we arrived in Royal Island, Eleuthera and have now been held here, waiting for a good weather window to continue on to the Abacos. The first three days it blew 25, gusts to 30 knots right out of the north - our destination is of course north! Yesterday it was calm with 7 to 10 foot ocean swells so that would have made for an uncomfortable ride. We will however, leave Friday morning early and we are hoping that we will have a great ride using the gennaker in a South wind of 15 knots and gentle seas. It is interesting that we are anchored in Royal Island in 8 feet of water and we will be in 8 feet of water when we arrive in the Abacos - between the two points we will see the bottom drop out from under us to depths exceeding 15,000 feet! It is a good thing that we float along the surface - the ride would be much longer if we had to follow the bottom!

Our plans are to spend a little more time exploring around the Abacos - we enjoyed our time there earlier so much. We are hoping that we will have an additional crew member with us for the next leg of our fantastic winter escape when we will leave the Bahamas late April. Our route will be to leave Bahamas off the north banks and head for the US. If we have a very favourable weather report, we will go directly from Abacos to Beaufort NC, a three day nonstop ride in which we will take advantage of having the gulf stream help us ride north with an extra 2 to 3 knots of current to help our speed over the bottom reach 8 to 10 knots. If we only get shorter good weather opportunities, then we will change our route to reach the US in Florida or South Carolina somewhere, and then make our way up the coast in shorter hops.

Work may necessitate us leaving Ambition in Deltaville, Virginia and return to Montreal by car. Roxanne and Josh will then bring her back to the lake for us as L'Attitude will probably stay in Deltaville all summer.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon …..

Cindy and Merrill

s/v Ambition