Saturday, I jumped off in Trellis Bay to check the anchor, and determined that the bottom paint had failed. I had sanded down the hull in NB, and worked hard to place new ablative paint on the boat. I have no idea why it is flaking off.
Sunday, we had a high-wind sail around to Road Harbour, where we spent some time checking into customs and immigration, and had a nice meal at the Village Cay Marina restaurant. The day continued with a downwind sail to Norman Island where, after a fabulous supper cooked by Dawn, Grant and I investigated the Willy T floating restaurant. Grant determined that it was too seedy for him, and we returned after only one beer. The wind came up and the anchor dragged around 1 a.m., and Grant and I took
turns all night on anchor watch. We reset it at dawn, had two more hours sleep, then Dawn and Grant went snorkelling around the Caves at the mouth of the Bight.
My Monday continued with mechanical checks of the boat, with a resulting find that the starboard saildrive, the one I spent literally days and days dismantling and repairing, is still leaking water into the lubrication oil. Oh well, another reason to be hauled. Grant was impressed with snorkelling - he thought he wasn't interested.
As Grant had a morning flight on Tuesday, we lifted anchor, and had a rollicking 6-7 tack sail up the Sir Francis Drake Channel, back to Trellis Bay, Beef Island, in strong winds. Grant treated us to a great meal at the Last Resort Island restaurant, and we went to bed rather early in anticipation of the dark dinghy ride to shore for the airport. After sad good-byes, Dawn and I hiked over to the north shore of Beef Island to beachcomb for booty. We arrived back to the boat only to hear by Skype-phone
that Grant was stuck in Puerto Rico after being bumped. We do hear he made it home on Wednesday, after spending an unscheduled overnight in Ottawa. We wonder how he feels, slogging around the numerous airports, with the extra bag of gear we sent along with him.
So, we're slowing down, doing chores, shopping for a boat haulout for new bottom paint and mechanical work, and enjoying the finding of booty on the beaches. Since landing here, we've found two new fenders, a blue Taylor fender cover, a couple dozen SS screws from wrecks, a mesh cover from a liferaft, a floating light for a MOB (man overboard) system, and a nice blue wine goblet. We're also looking for a nice weather window for the upwind slog to St. Martin, but will not likely find that on the
beach.
We'll keep you posted regarding our haulout experience, if these people will kindly answer our inquiries.
