November 19, 2020
Finally, at 5:35am I went below for more Excedrin Migraine and Brady told me to just stay down there. About 6:15 I finally heard captain getting up to start his watch. At 8:11am he came and woke us saying it’s not letting up let’s get the sails down and motor to Mayaguana and get out of this.
So that’s what we did.
It was a rough going process, we all just sat in the cockpit as we made our way. We were headed to go in the harbour for better protection but we saw a calm spot around 4 and decided to scope that out and anchor there so we wouldn’t have to navigate the reef in the setting sun and try to anchor in the dark. The windlass is broken so we had to hand do our spare anchor, not something you want to be doing for the first time, with two complete noobs, in the dark. Captain made omelets for dinner, I had a few Straw-ber-itas and we all went to bed early.
November 20, 2020
We got some much needed sleep, then got up and around more slowly. We did dishes and laundry. Hung our laundry out to dry, it was a productive morning. Eventually we raised anchor and moved on around the island to pull into the harbour. During the night storms blew in and it got really rough so we wanted a bit more protection. We were very glad to be navigating the reef during the daylight. There were definitely a few unmarked bommies. We found a good spot and dropped anchour.
Our clothes on the line got wet from the sea spray so we moved those and ran the line amidship in front of the mast. Then we decided it was time for a snorkel and spent a good amount of time exploring the water. We need some better equipment but we will get by with what we’ve got for now! We also filled the tank with every jug of diesel we had on the boat (35-40 gallons).
We were never able to get anyone on the island to answer on channel 16. And no one ever came out to us. We did see a little plane land so we know there was at least one person on the island. And at night the island lit up. It is an odd little spot, don’t know about land or it’s people but what captain told us. But it seems like a hidden gem because no one goes there and it seems like it would be a divers paradise and a snorkelers and possibly even a surfers but instead it’s the island no one has ever heard of. We had service and got weather reports from Dave and Gary because we couldn’t get any to load ourselves.
It was another early night.
