Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Warderick Wells, Exumas Park Emerald Rock 24 23.021/076 37.481

It sounds like we may be in for a rolling night tonight. Chris Parker is expecting strong winds from the WSW and Emerald Rock is exposed from the West and South. When Darcy called for any vessels leaving this morning, the only one leaving is Blue Pearl and they’re on the outer mooring ball that we didn’t want. So we’ll be staying here today and see if anyone leaves tomorrow from the north anchorage.

I made eggs, hash browns and sausage & toast with orange slices for breakfast then we headed over to the park office to drop off the rest of our books that we’d read. On the way back our outboard motor conched out. We had to row the dinghy back. It was quite a chore between the wind and the waves. After we got about 90% of the way back, a neighboring boat, Deb & Jon on Aqua Vita (from Vancouver) got in their dinghy and rescued us with a tow back the rest of the way. When I complain tomorrow about my sore shoulder and arm – you’ll know why! It’s a good distance from the park office to our boat. Deb & Jon it turns out used to own a Bayfield 29 – it was their first boat. They now are cruising about in an Endeavor 35 – a pretty boat. We originally mistook it for a Bayfield when it was coming in yesterday. The front end had a similar look to ours and she’s cutter rigged.

Flex Time is here! They’re on mooring ball 9 in the north anchorage. They heard us on the radio and dinghied over with their guests Pat & Bob to say hi before going hiking on the island. It was good to see them again :) and a shame that they need to leave tomorrow to take their guests back. They have to catch a plane over on Staniel Cay – vacation time is over. Sounds like we’ll catch up with Flex Time at Staniel Cay or Georgetown though.

Wayne’s working on the dinghy motor trying to figure out if it’s the gas or not. It might have been the gas AND the spark plug. When he removed the spark plug it was fouled with carbon. After reassembling everything it started after a few pulls. So we’ll see. In spite of all the breakdowns we’ve had lately it’s nothing compared to our partner boat this trip. They’d been struck by lightening and have had nothing but problems since then. The wind and waves are really starting to pick up. I was going to invite Azaya over but decided against it. I wouldn’t want to go out in it.