Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Fom: Black Point, Guana Cay (N24 06.151 W076 24.131) 9:00AM
To: White Land Beach, Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001) 12:30PM
Miles traveled: 13.2 NM

Happy Birthday Jacqueline! I won’t mention how old, but suffice it to say that you’re making your dad feel reaaallllly old today LOL. Hope you have a terrific birthday!

Yes cruisers plans are scattered to the winds. After plotting in a course to Lee Stocking, examining the anchorages there, then listening to the forecasts, we changed our course again. We have strong winds coming and building until the weekend. Because the winds are coming from the ESE from 15-20 knots today (we’d be banging into the winds the whole time), we decided to go back to the original plan of anchoring or mooring at Little Farmer’s Cay. Madcap and Solitaire are also going there but are stopping at White Point to do some swimming and wait for the tide to come up. We were going to stop with them, but after venturing out into the chop, we decided to go on. We figured the fetch and winds would continue to build and wanted to get in. Madcap told us that they’d already made reservations with the Ocean Club for moorings on the South East side so we thought it might be a good idea to do the same. Last year it was pretty much first one there picked up a mooring ball and called in to see whose it was – Ocean Clubs or Little Jeff’s. We were told to pick up one of the first two we came to and it’s labeled the Ocean Club’s.

Well, things went a little better coming in this time. The course through the deeper water once again was not deep and we bumped a few times on the sandbars but quickly found deep water close to shore and made it around the point and to the mooring. We watched another Bayfield 36 circling around the cut and going back and forth. I originally thought it was leaving but I think it was avoiding some shoals and seeking a path around them. They anchored half way up the island. We also heard a boat hailing Winfield Lash – it sounds like they might be coming into Little Farmers :) They’re on the outside – on the sound side. We came in on the bank side. I would imagine it’s a bit choppier there!

I heard Winfield Lash hailing the Ocean Club and we made contact with them. They pulled into the harbor the same time Madcap pulled in. Solitaire pulled in shortly after that. We dinghied over to the Ocean Club to check in and Finisterre was just leaving. We stood at the dock chatting a bit, then Winfield pulled up and MadCap and we all headed over to the Ocean Cabin for Kalicks and conch fritters. Solitaire and then Lapidus joined the group at the Ocean Cabin. Tom (the guy building the dome house on Big Farmer’s Cay) brought his ukulele and played tunes and it was a very nice evening. Going through the guest book I noticed that last time we were here it was March 30th 2009 – on our way back home. This time we’re still heading south. It was great to touch base with Marge and Dave again. I’m only sorry we couldn’t have caught up with them sooner at Georgetown and talked them into going down to Long Island. Excuse me Terry – I mean up to Long Island. The closer to the equator the higher in altitude… We had a very nice evening with a group of awesome people. As dark approached we headed back to the dinghy. I wanted to be able to navigate the rocks and waves while we could see. It was a very wet ride back to the boat and we were soaked. We stripped off all the wet cloths in the cockpit and left them there to dry overnight and I brought towels up to dry off (salt water in the cabin isn’t a good thing). Now to wait for my hair to dry before going to bed…