Apr. 3/2012
The first day of our trip home was spent motor sailing south. We had to zig zag all over the place to avoid various reefs, sand banks and shallow areas. Lovely day, lots of boats especially at Sandy Cay. We entered Little Harbour before 2PM and picked up a mooring. Let down the dinghy to go to shore, motor wouldn’t start. Something wrong with the mechanism that prevents the motor from starting in gear. So off we went rowing to shore, but a kindly boater in his dinghy towed us in. Boaters are a close community, everyone helps everyone else. You never know when you will be the one needing help.
We spent an hour or so walking around Little Harbour, enjoying the beach and jungle atmosphere. Pete’s pub is a lively place, right on the beach, full of all ages and rowdy. Hot hot day, Sammy surprised us by flopping down under a tree and refusing to go any further. He has never done that before. So we let him off the leash and he went in the water and stayed there, paralleling us as we walked along the beach. On the way back to the boat we got another tow from a retired American couple on a sailing cat, so we invited them for drinks. When we got back to our boat, Tom reluctantly tackled the motor. He hates mechanic sort of work. Anyway, one hour of sweating and swearing later, Tom had it fixed. He always manages despite insisting that he cannot fix things.
Our new American friends joined us for drinks later, bringing snacks and wine. We chatted away for hours, she was a retired OR nurse so we had lots in common. I learned a new trick with the lazy jacks from her husband. Classic Americans, nice people with hair raising political opinions, we’re talking mandatory gun ownership and eugenics, and I am not 100% sure he was kidding!
Tom and I went out for my birthday dinner at Pete’s . What a setting, sitting on a deck overlooking a harbour full of sailboats, watching the sun set. Great food. All in all a great day.

Apr. 4
Not such a great day. Motoring upwind all the way to Hole in the Wall at the southern tip of Abaco. Not rough at all but suddenly, a loud bang and our dinghy davit gave way! Had to lower the dinghy and trail it behind. The davit is OK but it was tethered to the starboard stanchion and that is snapped through. Pics will be posted on the web for Jim our boat partner. We were able to sail up the west coast of Abaco to Sandy Point but not much wind, then as we were docking at Lightbourne’s Marina, a gust of wind threw us at the dock and we lost a good deal of the rub rail. That took an hour of sweat and hammering to fix. Tired of things going wrong! The marina has no power and the OII internet we paid for is not operational. Not unusual in the Bahamas, they’ll fix it someday.
Went for a walk with Sammy, exceedingly friendly people. Everyone stops to say hello and meet Sammy. Nice place.
Leaving this morning for the Berrys