Jan 31-Feb 1, 2015
Another sailing day!! Mark decided to anchor up (which is typically Angie’s job) and have Angie man the helm while maneuvering out of the anchorage and keeping the boat turned into the wind to get the sails up. We have settled into each person doing their own “job” and Mark thinks we need to crossover to make sure everyone knows how to do everything. I have to admit, the boat’s autopilot system for keeping the boat headed into the wind does a far more superior job than myself at keeping the boat heading properly. But, it all went well.
This is the first anchorage with a pristine beach right in front of us on the inside, away from the wind, that we have come to. Angie is very happy. Yet another hiking trail or two to find as well.
We dinghied over to shore again the next day to hike to the tallest peak in this area of the Bahamas. Found that trail, quite easily. It emerged at 40 ft in elevation.
However, not so easily found was the trail from one side of the island to the other. (Again—A pattern seems to be forming). After hunting through little beach tree openings, Angie found it, tucked off the shoreline a ways in.
The Atlantic side had a great long, beautiful sandy beach, and looked like good coral for snorkeling and fishing, but 7 ft waves kept Mark from getting out to them. Mark is becoming tired of hauling snorkeling, lobstering, and fishing gear for hours in a makeshift back pack without using them. He also has to use a 1.5 mm wet suite along with another 2 mm shorty suit on because of the cold water. We need to get further South!
We also did more boat work. Angie got a fresh water (rain) rinse and was able to get wax coat #1 on the salon surround. It needs more. Mark removed the old watermaker and got most of the big stuff installed with the new one. He anticipates 1 hr of electrical and 1 hr of plumbing still left to do, pending finding the right plumbing and some electrical fittings. This means we need to head to an island that has a hardware store. Angie also decided it would be nice to turn the berth bed 90 degrees, and has a redesign of the berth in mind for next haul out season to get more storage. Having idle time is not a good thing sometimes when Angie is always trying to figure out how to get more storage, and of course, visiting other people’s boats always starts new ideas percolating.
