We hoped to be off the dock 7:30 ish but when at 7:15 there were no signs of life at the marina office Bob cycled over to the Resort office by the restaurant. The staff all arrived in a minibus at 8am so whoever told Bob the office opened at 7am was a little off. We were off the dock at 8:30 and then calamity struck, another fender overboard incident, this time the big heavy one. Peter & Wilma struggled to get it on board but with no line grab, which is why it went overboard, only one end had a knot, it was impossible to lift out of the water, heavy and slippery. Using a boat hook, they guided it to the back of boat where I was standing on the open transom. I was able to get a finger into the hole for the line at one end but no way could I lift it, it just slipped out of my hands. Wilma then leaned down to help me so with Bob hanging onto the back of my pants so I didn’t fall in, we managed to get the fender back on board. We all saw the shark feeding frenzy yesterday, fender or no fender, no one was going into water.
It was high tide when we left so we didn’t have to be quite as careful as when we arrived yesterday at low tide. The forecast was for 13-15 knot winds but after a couple of hours of sailing the winds got flukey and reduced significantly. It was 40+nm distance to George Town and an estimated 7 hours at a decent speed so we had to bite the bullet and turn the engine on. We kept the sails up which did help keep the speed up without doing max engine revs. There was the odd short shower but nothing major and the sun was shining most of the way. Once we turned into the channel, it was about 3nm to the harbour where we planned to anchor. There were boats anchored all along that stretch and beyond the harbour where we turned. We were surprised that it was 95% cats and mono hulls, very few motor yachts/boats.
We anchored in the harbour near the yacht club which has seen better times. Some of their docks look really beat up and there are only two boats at the marina. There is no break wall of any kind, natural or man made so being at the marina would not provide any additional protection from wind and waves. We’re going to town tomorrow so we chilled on the boat, enjoyed the usual afternoon cocktail hour and dinner. Once it got dark the view of all the anchor lights across the channel was amazing. Bob has a good data connection through a new Bahamian company called ALIV and we can all tether via his device. The plan includes tons of data so among other things we’ve been able to keep up with the Olympics. Go Canada Go.