The forecasts all call for some very windy weather coming and from the NE. That means our original plan to go from here back to Long Island wasn't the best idea. We
have met several boaters who knew of routes on the banks and Bruce (Reflection) is one of them. He and Marilyn have travelled that way before and we decided to use Friday to follow their route and get ourselves north. Otherwise, it would be a week before we could leave the Jumentos, and even though we're not nearly finished exploring here, it was probably time for us to leave for this year.

Despite my expectations of having lots of internet contact in Ragged Island, it didn't turn out that way at all. So - you will find many new postings that are just going up today. I'm sitting in the lovely breezy porch of DeShaMon in Black Point with a stomach filled with delicious conch pizza. I've been doing some writing all along, and now it's time to get you all caught up.

We left Buenavista Cay at 0300 hours on Friday. (That's 3am! and yes it was dark.) The route we'd cover before dawn was free of coral heads with water deep enough for us to cross. During the afternoon, we kept a sharp lookout for heads and dodged around a few of them. It was hot. There was no wind. It was a long trip - over 100 nautical miles. It was not exactly a happy day on the water for people who really really like to travel under sail power. Add to that, there is a problem with our alternator. The engine is putting no charge into the batteries - a fact we discovered at 3 am. We have been well charged from the wind generator and we have run the engine very very little lately and have not noticed any problem till the wind died. Jim had this new problem in the back of his mind all day, but with some examination of connections, advice from fellow cruisers and some excellent books, we're pretty sure he can take care of it. In the meantime, we turned off the fridge, didn't charge up the computers, and stressed a wee bit over it!

We averaged about 6 miles per hour and pulled into Little Bay - just around the corner from Black Point at about 10 pm, tired and with ears ringing. We used more fuel on this trip than in the last month - or maybe longer.

However - the good side to this tale of woe - and there is ALWAYS a good side - is that we discovered Katmandu and Star of the Sea are in Big Majors Spot waiting for the front to go through, Reflection and Dot's Way are here in Black Point. I did laundry and have finally gotten on the internet. The most out of the blue surprise is that Moon River is also in Big Major's Spot! Jennifer and Gratton were our shed mates for a while at Iroquois boat yard in Iroquois, Ontario before we left on our 2007 trip. We met up with them in Baddeck, Cape Breton, NS that summer but have not seen them since so it seems that the extra windy weather, the long slog up here and the generator trouble that will keep us near here are also responsible for us being able to link up with these old friends.

The long slog made for a tiring day but put us in a good place!