After resting up from our hunting expedition, we enjoyed a day with Dave and Trish. They drove us up to the north end of the island. The price of gasoline is $6 a gallon, so our tour included errands. We went as far as Arthur's Town where we met other friends of theirs and had lunch. Arthur's Town is the hometown of Sidney Potier. Richard and I have been to Cat Island before and had seen some of it. We had been to New Bight and climbed up to the highest point in all of the Bahamas to see The Hermitage that was built by Father Jerome Hawes in 1939. Our travels today were past The Hermitage and more. We stopped on the roadside by the beach where a fisherman was selling his catch. He was filleting a Permit for a customer. He had a very large Hog Fish that Dave and Trish bought for $25 that included the cleaning and fileting. We bought 6 cleaned conchs for $15.
We also stopped at the bank, beer store, grocery store and got our propane tank refilled. We headed back to their house late afternoon with all our goodies. As soon as we parked the car, I asked Richard to go check on the dinghy. It was right where we left it, pulled way the hell up the beach high and dry. We weaved through the coral heads and arrived back to our floating home just as the orange sun dipped below the horizon. What a difference a day makes.

The next day, we had dinner with Dave and Trish and stayed a night in Dave and Trish's guest room, we learned that Dave Calvert was crew on 5 World Record breaking races aboard PlayStation with Steve Fossett. Calvert Sails continue to be on many multi-hulled racing and cruising boats.

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To respond to the questions about how our dinghy got loose. The dinghy anchor was found secure on the beach with it knot untied. The loop at the end of our anchor rode had been retied with a square knot rather than the proper bowline (with long tail). We had been using the anchor without incident for our many snorkling expeditions (which included getting a couple of good sized conch). However, even the best knot can come untied when a dinghy is surging up and down on the beach.

The beach was rather steep in this location and we didn't pull the dinghy up the beach far enough up to accompodate high tide. (we were a little too enthusiastic about going to the party) Leaving a dinghy on a beach after dark is always risky business. Extra care is always in order. It is easy to get caught up in a moment and forget your duty to the boat. We did a brief refresher course on bowlines for Hello Texas crew.

I wish that I could say that we learned a lesson... but we knew better... you can be anal about everything and make no mental mistakes, but then do you really want to be a totally anal cruiser?