Early Alpha, Charlie, Foxtrot and Sierra, Day 6: Waving Goodbye to the Bight and Setting Sail for Nanny Cay

Written by Sinéad Power

On Day 6, our budding sailors awoke to a busy day ahead! After a quick check of the job rota, head chef and sous chef got to the kitchen to start preparing pancakes. Meanwhile, the skipper and first mate started engine checks and began to charge the batteries. After a delicious breakfast and quick clean up, the team completed pre-departure checks and got into position to drop the mooring ball and get underway. We waved goodbye to the Bight, motored past the Indians (yesterday’s snorkel spot) and found clear water to hoist our sails. After an impassioned rendition of our winching chant,

Hustle hustle hustle,

Muscle muscle muscle,

You got it, you got it,

Crank that winch!,

our main sail was hoisted and it was time to get sailing and kill the engines. We unfurled the jib next and consulted our navigator of the day to set our course. With Nanny Cay in our sights, we blasted through the water, reaching a maximum speed of 8.1 knots! Underway, we had a recap on sailing lessons so far. As we approached Nanny Cay and received docking instructions, everyone prepared for the challenge with a docking lesson. The skipper led the docking plan and assigned everyone a job.

Nanny Cay is an old, narrow marina and docking here is one of the biggest challenges our students face with strong winds constantly pushing the boat. Thankfully, everyone did a fantastic job and made it to docks safe and sound. But we couldn’t relax yet. Everyone knuckled down to a deep clean in preparation for boat inspection. Scrubbing the deck wasn’t the half of it. Every surface was cleaned and polished while every hatch had to be lifted to wash out. Thankfully, there was time for a quick lunch before inspection (which we passed with flying colors).
There wasn’t much time to celebrate though as our Fun, Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Rescue divers rushed off to the dive boat. A couple of hours later, they arrived back, including the newly certified Open Water divers. Congratulations, guys!

Meanwhile, non-divers hit Nanny Cay, exploring the beach, shops, sipping virgin piña coladas, and enjoying air conditioned bathrooms and showers! Quite the luxury after five days of boat showers. All this while staff sweated on dock supervising all the areas, getting laundry out and reprovisioning all of the boats for the remainder of the trip.