The Black Point dinghy dock and laundry, the most southern port for our 2014 cruise

Bad news. Jascat isn't going to make it to George Town, at least this year. The poor old boat has sprung a leak and we are going to have to go back to Nassau to get it fixed.

At Staniel Cay two days ago, the starboard bow slammed into a pier when we went in for fuel and water. At the time, we thought that the resulting damage was limited to cracked gel coat around the deck to hull joint right at the peak of the bow. This morning, however, after a rough crossing into the wind from Staniel to Black Point, the floor of the forward locker was wet. Ripping out the fabric covering the inside of the hull revealed a vertical crack maybe 6 inches long near the top of the bow.

Going on to George Town requires an all day sail out in the Exuma Sound which can be very rough. We don't want to take the chance of the crack widening so we'll be turning around here at Black Point. The sail to Nassau is downwind on the banks side of the islands and should present much less stress on the hull.

A bit of foul weather is supposedly coming in so we are going to hold up in Warderick Wells (or Cambridge Cay) for the next couple of days. From there it's another two days into Nassau. The boat yard in Nassau says they can probably get to us near the end of the week. I'm expecting the repair to take at least a couple of days (and maybe another day or two for the fiberglass smell to air out) so we are going to get to know Nassau pretty well.