We made it to Green Turtle Cay (pronounced Key) yesterday morning. We changed up our prior plans due to some good information we received from Espen and Barbara on Mini Pearl. Espen is a seasoned Bahamas sailor, and he's yet to steer us wrong. So instead of bumping from Bimini to the Berry's, we went north to Went End on Grand Bahama. After about a 10 hour sail, we dropped anchor just north of West End, took the dog to shore and passed out.
We left first thing the next morning to head to Great Sale Cay, another full day of sailing. We had been unintentionally moving in a heard of other boats (some in which we enjoyed, others in which we...eh...well...) so we wanted to get some distance from the group. Most dropped their anchor in Mangrove Cay, a half day sail away, but we pushed it in hopes to find some isolation. We comfortably made it to Great Sale, dropped anchor, took the dog to shore and watched the winds gradually pick up speed and change direction, giving us a rough and noisy night. Going on a few hours of sleep, we started the next morning early to get a start on another 7 hour sail to the next destination. Right as we were rousing ourselves from our blankets and pillows, we heard a loud POP! Dave looks at me and says, "Was that gunfire?" I told him it sounded to me like something hit the boat. So I crawled outside to sneak a peak, only to find our dinghy upside down and half deflated!
For those of you who are unaware of the woes of this; the outboard on the dinghy is toast once it gets submerged. Water is death to all engines. We stood dumbfounded for a moment trying to figure out what the hell happened, while simultaneously watching all the things we left in the dinghy rapidly float away. Quickly, Dave grabbed my fins and snorkel and I dove into the dark water (this was just before dawn) in my pajamas to retrieve what I could catch up with.
We hoisted the whole thing up with the halyard, overladen with a ton of water to let the it drain out, and pumped it back up. The entire left arm of the dink was deflated. The night before, when we inflated it to take the dog to shore, I didn't tighten the plug enough (you have to have a kung-fu grip to tighten the damn thing on enough, apparently). When it finally released the pressure inside, the thing sunk within seconds. At least it kindly waited until morning to do it!
While Dave took the outboard apart in futile hopes to restore it back to life, I continued to dive and search for the many lost articles sunk or floating away. A couple hours later, after desperation, exhaustion and frustration - Dave got the motor running. He took apart the carb and cleaned it out, wrung out the pull-cord, dried the electrical connections and pulled the spark plugs. We still can't believe the thing turned over! In all reality, it shouldn't have started. It had been fully submerged. Yahamas kick ass! Even more so, Dave is, once again, my hero!
I had managed to find everything that sunk. And we took a long dinghy ride and miraculously found the final oar. In total we lost and found: two oars, the dinghy tool kit, a dog leash, the pump and finally it's sunken hose. We drained and saved our beautiful outboard. All of this while we were getting the knocked around from heavy south winds and choppy seas. We pulled anchor and sailed on over to Fox Town.
There, we caught up with one of the boats in our prior group; Tintéan. They invited us over for dinner and drinks that night. The next morning we woke up before sunrise, and I noticed that their dinghy wasn't there. We're the only lunatics who go to shore that early because of the dog...so I got on our VHF and hailed over, "Tintéan, Tintéan, Wave Dancer."
"Tintéan here." (Irish accent)
"I hope one of you are ashore, because your dinghy is not attached to the aft of your boat." Silence.
"Nope, it would appear we lost it." (Irish accent)
In the middle of the night, a sudden squall came up on us in Fox Town. Probably 30 knot winds and 3 foot chop. It pulled their dinghy off and took it away (too much rum may have aided in this, it happens to the best of us). With the directions of the wind and current, we all assumed it could have been 60 nm (nautical miles) away. We took Ken (boisterous and funny Irishman, married to a fun, petite American named Sara) on a wet and wild dinghy cruise in some desperate hope to find it.
With no luck, we took them both to shore and and Ken offered anyone $100 to find their dink. Sure enough, a couple hours later, someone returned it to them $100 dollars richer. The two of them were popular on the island. The winds should have pushed it SE, yet somehow it managed to hit shore north of us, undamaged.
We stay in Fox Town longer than we wanted, due to heavy winds. But we enjoyed Crown Haven and the locals. One guy took Ken out lobstering, so that night all of us enjoyed fresh lobster tails (I've become the worst vegetarian ever).
The rest of the group had caught up with us by then. We left early the next morning, only to find the entire group pulling up anchor right behind us. We discovered the consensus was for Green Turtle Cay, but Dave and I wanted to divert our path slightly and we headed for Manjack Cay.
We loved Manjack. We had a secluded cove and beach at our disposal. There were nature trails throughout the island; one lead to a beautiful beach and snorkel spot on the Atlantic side. McKinley got to roam and play ball all day. It was a great refresh button for us. We spotted a Nurse shark, and MASSIVE Sting ray with a wing-span easily of 5+ feet and eyeballs the size of limes.
We got word from Chris Parker on our short wave radio that we had some crappy weather headed our way. So we booked over the Green Turtle for a safe harbor. Green Turtle is too touristy for our taste. We're eager to move on, but in the meantime we're enjoying homemade Coconut bread, fresh vegetables, live Calypso music by the Gully Roosters and other sights.
We should be here at least a few days. We'll wait for the weather to pass, then we have to let the seas die down before we cross Whale Cay Channel. We're headed to Marsh Harbor to meet up with our lovable buddy, Mike! We can't wait to see him!
We love and miss everyone - we hope all is well!
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