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Mär 15, 2007: Great Inagua Island – Bahamas

24°C / 75°F

Position:21° 22' N-73° 24' W

Wind: 36km/h

After quite a stormy night and a near collision with a cargo ship, we arrived at Matthew Town on Great Inagua Island, Bahamas.

Just after sunset, they arrive every evening. They come from all directions, flying in groups of 60, 40 20, sometimes one or two; all of them land on a group of mangrove trees across our boat. There, they perch for the night: More than a thousand white herons. The strictly limited sector of the mangrove wood, where the birds sleep, appears white in the dark night as if snow has fallen onto the trees. In the morning, when we wake up, most of them are gone again.

Monday, March 13th, was a rainy day. The next morning, the sun was back and invited us to continue our journey. Other than the weather forecast, the sun stayed with us the whole day. In the evening, the wind became strong. It blew during the night with 25 to 30 knots. Big waves, crossed sea followed – quite a challenge for our skippers Michel and Yves Thonney. In the middle of the night, a cargo ship approached us, with a course directly towards the "sun21". Beat heard the faster turning motors and climbed onto deck. The skippers tried hard to navigate the boat through the rough sea manually; it was very difficult to keep the course and to avoid the danger of a collision.

The sea remained very rough until we came closer to the Great Inagua Island; but we fortunately had enough sunshine during the whole day in order to float at a speed of 6 knots. In the dark, we anchored in front of Matthew town. Every ten seconds, the bright beacon lights of a big lighthouse illuminated the "sun21". Tomorrow, we plan to get the clearance for the boat and the crew to enter the Bahamas islands.

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