The anchorage between Manjack and Crab Cay is well protected and has so much to offer. Lots of boats come in and quickly fill up the place. One too close for comfort and I pull out my bat wings for the first time. No super hero powers with the cool cape. Cruisers Bat wings are hands on hips watching THAT boat come in and drop anchor closer than you feel is comfortable. The bat wings are well known and are a sure sign of “hey you…move it, move it!”

A much larger charter cat comes in and literally drops anchor right next to us. I kept watching thinking they surely are going to move or let out more scope. Nope a swimmer jumps in to swim the anchor to check if it set while another woman shrugs her shoulders at me with a look of oops sorry. Much scrambling on board and shaking of head from the swimmer, not a good set. All six people aboard now stand on the bow shaking their heads. Everyone gets back into position, captain at the helm, man with gloved hands pulling up the anchor, woman still shrugging at me and the others pointing at some sandy patches to drop the anchor. Try number 2, didn’t even move just redropped the anchor and with only a tiny bit of scope they were just bobbing there. No backing down on it to set. Finally I can’t take it anymore and stand up. The shrugging woman again shrugs sorry and in a normal voice since they are near enough to hand them a cocktail. The woman calmly tells me that their charter boats windlass isn’t working and they’re having to hoist the anchor by hand. Now that explains why they don’t want to put out much scope but with the wind we’ve had this doesn’t work for me. I tell her I am concerned if the wind shifts AT ALL that we are going to hit each other. She relays the message and then lets me know they don’t know how much closer to shore they can get because their depth finder doesn’t work either! I let her know that you can go a long ways in, the depth stays at 9 feet until you get close to shore. I point to a patch of sand that is safe for them to head to and a safe distance from us. A shrug, a thanks and off they go. Feeling bad for them now I make a mental note of the charter company and who doesn’t maintain their equipment. This was a nice newer boat and it isn’t safe to not have these vital pieces of equipment operational. Try number 3 and they are safely away from us.

Our new friends from IEMANJANA comes in and drops near us. We invite them over the next night for drinks and snacks and to catch up. They are headed off in the same direction until we get to Great Sale Cay and then they will head north while we head west. Nice to have someone to compare weather forecasts with and share thoughts. They plan on leaving earlier while we want to hang out here for a few days.

There is a cruiser friendly home on Manjack and every evening the man comes by for an evening sail in his little personal sailboat to watch the sunset. Waves with his cocktail in hand wishing you a good evening as he goes by. Tomorrow we plan on going to the beach by his house to hang out for the day. The stingrays come there to bury themselves in the sand and wait for any scraps that might be thrown their way. For now with cocktail in hand and my bat wings nicely folded away we sit in the cockpit and watch another beautiful sunset.