December 25 cont'd
This morning we woke up
and decided to go for breakfast at the Yacht Club. By the time we were finished and got moving
it was 10 am. It would have been about
10 miles to go out around Harvey Cay and down to the mark but we took a
shortcut through the sand bores and cut 5 miles off the trip. I wondered how
many people in Staniel were taking bets we wouldn't make it through the
shallows! Still, pounding into it, it
took two hours to get down to Blackpoint. This time we used the storm
jib...much better in strong wind.
But the exciting part
[and not in a good way] as we approached the cut between Staniel and Bitter
Guana we heard a distress call on the radio. A boat with three people, two
adults and a child had capsized going through the cut and needed help.
We listened as Staniel
Cay organized three planes and some fast boats to locate them. One of the huge
mega yachts, Morning Star, sent its tender out to help in the search and by the
time we actually got to the opening [we had no intention of trying to help...we
would have been in the way, and just added to the problem --8 foot dinghy with
a 5 ph motor?!?!] the Morning Star tender had located and rescued them!! They
had been in the water for about an hour by the time they were found.
Watching the opening as
we went by we wondered who in their right mind would go out on the ocean on a
day like this! The seas were forecasted to be 8-12 feet. The waves were coming
into the cut against the outgoing tide so the waves were even bigger and the
winds were still at 20 knots. There's a
description many sailors use to describe the sea state when you don't want to
go out on the water...they call it "elephants dancing". As we passed
the cut, it looked more like dinosaurs dancing!
Are ya' nuts???
We already know that the
open ocean is not going to calm done until Monday or Tuesday, so until then we
will amble our way down the inside and get as close to Georgetown as we can
before heading out one of the cuts to get into Elizabeth Harbour.
So we continued on to
Blackpoint. Rick is desperate for some fruit. I know we will be able to get
lots in Georgetown but right now we could manage on the tins of pineapple and
apple sauce that we have. Being Christmas
day I wouldn't think that the stores in this community would be open. It isn't
a tourist place, just a little town on a little island and I would hope that
SOMEONE would want to keep Christmas as a holiday!
It took two tries to
find and anchor spot that would hold. IN the middle of the attempt, Rick
switched anchors from the Bruce to the fortress. We sat in the harbour for
about an hour. There were a couple of Canadian boats in there and we saw
Whitebird again...the boat from Morgan's Bluff. A few people were moving
between boats but no-one seemed to be going ashore to the dinghy dock. There
were no cars or people on the beach or on the roads, so we decided that we should
keep going. We lifted the anchor and headed down to Whitepoint, a couple of
miles down the island. WE looked at Jack's Cove but it didn't look deep enough
close to shore for protection, so we went south of the Whitepoint beach to
Hetty's Land, another small bay. We only
saw one fast boat heading across the bay while we were anchoring He was heading
to Farmer's Cay
We got in and anchored
surprisingly easily. The sand is so soft, the anchor sank! We swam to shore ...
about a ¼ mile and walked the beach .There is so much plastic washed up I was collecting
little piles to make sure it didn't go back into the water, while Rick looked
for shells. We put on our sandals and walked inland looking for signs of
iguanas but only found little trails from curly tails and one track that might
have been a snake. ~~~~~ We couldn't see the ocean side but w could hear the surf.
NA speaking of dinosaur... there were bird tracks on the beach that looked they
were from a pterodactyl an ostrich!
After dinner the winds
picked up and the waves for some reason started changing direction. W e got
tossed all night because they were not the same direction as the wind. But it
was a clear night and the full moon was amazing. We could see the beach and all
the colours of blue water. It was beautiful.
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