Peter Island to Sea Cows Bay and back!

Having the last of the cheese and ham croissants for breakfast is probably the most exciting thing that happened today.

The day was grey and miserable from start to finish.  Mike decides to sail over to Sea Cows Bay to talk to people who have just finished the World Arc and are joining Arc Europe leaving from Nanny Cay tomorrow. 

The bay is supposed to be dredged quite well all the way round, but just level with the last dock we get ourselves stranded on a sandbank and sit there for a few minutes, wobbling around and looking very silly.  Eventually we float off – no harm done – and head back out a little way, but just inside the reef.  Unfortunately it’s nowhere near as calm there and the boat pitches and rolls all over the place.  Mike goes off in the dinghy leaving me to catch up with my blog.

He comes back a couple of hours later later having only found one person to talk to but al least he has been able to order the broken part for the anchor light.

The anchorage is so uncomfortable that we decide to head back to Peter Island for the night.  Great Harbour looks very crowded so we try Little Harbour instead, which Mike prefers anyway.  (By the way, aren’t names inventive here?)

When we arrive, all the best spots are taken, and given the wind, all the boats have stern anchors or land lines out too.  We put the main anchor down then Mike starts to join all the warps together to make a long one, ties it to the boat and heads out in the dinghy to look for a nice big rock to attach ourselves to.  No sooner does he leave than the wind picks up and blows us sideways towards the shore.  Mike pulls the boat round again when there is a lull in the wind and is just off towards the rocks once more when the same thing happens.  By the time this has happened a third time he is starting to look a tad fed up and changes his modus operandi driving the dinghy into Jeannius to drive her around while I use the engines to make her swing.  Then he’s off to lasso a rock.  This time he wins and we end up having a comfortable and quiet evening.

 Photo:  Jeannius secured for the night, Mike waits for his Dark and Stormy