Christmas Day con't

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.