Thursday started out, as usual, with school. Noah was less than excited about doing his schoolwork so his parents were getting testy. He had complained on Wednesday that the inside of the dinghy was dirty so, after school, he was assigned to clean it. Checking on him after about twenty minutes found him sitting in the flooded dinghy asking for more soap. He had pulled the drain plug! After a heated discussion, he spent the next forty minutes bailing out the boat.

Looking at the guide books we decided to head north to Pelican Cays Land & Sea Park to do some snorkling. It was only a forty minute trip before we anchored behind Sandy Cay. Unfortunately, there was too much surge from the North Bar Channel to make the anchorage comfortable and ocean waves were breaking near where we hoped to snorkel. Going further north we spotted Iceni anchored of Tiloo Cay, but no one was home and the seas were still rolling up from the channel. We decided to go around Tavern Cay where there would be protection from the south.

Passing a stone tower that looked as if it belonged on a castle, the surge subsided and we were ready to drop the hook at 1709. (Warning – boring anchoring description ahead – skip to next paragraph). We backed down and all seemed well until we went and checked the anchor in the dinghy. It was laying on the bottom with barely a fluke catching on the bottom. Back to the boat to reanchor. This time it didn’t catch at all, so we moved a little bit south and tried again. Backing down again at 1740 the boat seemed well set. Putting out to check with the dinghy showed that we were firmly hooked — on a *!*#*! cable. By 1825 we had extricated ourselves from the cable and were re-anchoring, but the CQR wasn’t holding. Pulled it back in and set the Bruce anchor as the sun set behind Tiloo Cay. Checking it with the dinghy yielded some concern as it only had one fluke in. We were tired and grumpy, so decided to eat dinner and watch the anchor. I watched the boat position on the computer and set the anchor drag alarm on the GPS so it would beep if the boat moved more than 0.01 nautical miles. The wind picked up to 17 knots just after 2200 and the alarm sounded as we started slowly dragging back into the channel. Beth and I went out and dropped the CQR with lots of chain behind the Bruce. This stopped our movement and we actually managed some sleep after that. If we do this again, we’ll look for an anchor that sets well in grass and hard packed sand as that is where neither the Bruce nor CQR does well. I guess we have been spoiled by the nice sand anchorages in the Central Bahamas.

Waking up early Friday morning we were, thankfully, in the same spot. We all vowed to make this a better day. School went quickly and then we took the dinghy out in quest of a spot to snorkel. The guide book recommended Tiloo Cut so we surveyed it through the window in the Caribe. We were disappointed in the mostly lifeless structure. There was some soft coral and a few fish, but the hard coral was white or covered with green algae. Earl, had recommended visiting Tahiti Beach, so we returned from the cut and headed towards the end of Elbow Cay. Tahiti Beach is a beach that turns into a sandbar at the south point of Elbow Cay. Lots of shallow water and beautiful sand made it a great spot for building sand castles and looking for shells.
Back on the boat for lunch, we decided to head up towards Marsh Harbour to refill our water tanks and then move on to Hopetown to see friends on Iceni. The two anchors came up more easily than expected (the windlass doesn’t help with the last thirty feet of chain on the Bruce) and we were underway by 1350. As we approached Marsh Harbour, we called Boat Harbour Marina to see about stopping to purchase water. There is a fishing tournament on, so they weren’t excited about a sailboat tying up their fuel dock when the sport fishers came in to fill up their fuel hungry engines. We still have a full tank of diesel, so wouldn’t be spending much money. The wind was picking up as well and we decided to bypass Boat Harbour and get water on a day with less activity. By 1608 we were anchored by Iceni near the red and white stripped lighthouse just outside of Hopetown harbour. After examining our position on the chart we decided we were too close to the channel and pulled up the anchor. Hoping that this wouldn’t be a repeat of yesterday, we avoided several spots marked as cable crossings and ended up anchoring a little further south, just off the beach in front of a resort that is no longer open. A brief rain shower cleared the salt off the dodger windows and ushered in a beautiful sunset. Noah and I signalled the event with blasts on the conch horn. The signal was answered by some territorial roosters and a couple of geese from a nearby waterfront home. After sunset we could see the beam from the kerosene lamp on the lighthouse sweeping the sky. The light still uses a manually wound system and we want to come back in a few days and visit the inner harbor and see the lighthouse up close.

We finished reading about Bilbo’s adventures in “The Hobbit” and were all asleep by 2100. It was a restful night until we woke up with the roosters at 0530. They don’t seem to be on the same schedule as the sun. Talking with Iceni this morning they mentioned that they had to shut their hatches to cut
down the noise and music from Hopetown. I’m glad we anchored a little further down the shore.
Today we will move on to Man-O-War Cay, in search of water. We haven’t purchased any since Compass Cay in the Exumas.