Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Day 163

We had originally thought we’d stay in Staniel Cay another day or so with Windswept while Brandaris and Say Yes were thinking about heading south before the next front comes through. Since our charger part of our inverter isn’t working and we’re not getting any charge through to the batteries we’re a little nervous about being stuck in the middle of nowhere. If we stayed there wouldn’t be another weather window to get to Georgetown for about a week...which could be alright but if the alternator completely dies we could be in trouble.

So at 10:30 we headed out with Brandaris and Say Yes. We notified Windswept of our plans via VHF and they had been on skype so later they called back (calling us the Port Stanley group) for the official goodbyes. Right after our little goodbye Papa went down below and a Lady Simcoe started to hail the Port Stanley group. We had no idea who Lady Simcoe was until the captain introduced himself as Gord Zimmerman. I had no idea who Gord Zimmerman was but Grama just went Gord Zimmerman! Brandaris responded to the hail and once he was up to date on our position and we knew where he was Papa came up and cut in and apparently we were to be passing right by them traveling in the opposite direction. So they agreed to have a little rendezvous in the middle of nowhere on the banks of the Bahamas. When they were finally off the VHF Papa explained to me that Gord and Grama and Papa were friends in Kinsman club and he use to sail out of Port Stanley as well but eventually moved to Lake Simcoe and they haven’t seen each other in 25 years!

We were sailing along and out of nowhere we hear a beep and the alternator started working properly (knock on wood!!) and at one point we even saw 3 green lights!! (there are 4 lights and 4 green lights means the batteries are completely full).

As we neared Black point we saw a sailboat all of a sudden changed off a parallel course closer inland and head directly for us. I laughed and said to Papa that must be Gord. And indeed it was. We slowed right down and he pulled alongside us and we drifted together for a god 15-20mins chatting and such, said hi to his wife Sue. We even exchanged boat cards before he headed into black point.

We carried on. Our destination for tonight is Lee Stalking Island and to anchor near the research buildings.

At 430 we came in the cut. It’s a very pretty spot in here and a tour of the research center would be nice but with the weather we need to head out first thing in the morning.

We got nicely anchored and our neighbour was worried that we had dropped our anchor on top of his =/, which can be a bit of an issue. Grama helped me get the motor on the dingy and I grabbed the looky bucket to go check it out. It took me forever to find our anchor! It was buried (which is great!) but thankfully a ways away from our neighbours anchor. When I got back to the butt Papa informed me I was to go to Brandaris next to check on their anchor which was set and as i returned to the butt again I was told to head on over to Say Yes lol. Their chain was mostly buried and their anchor was set so all was good. This time when I returned I was allowed onto the butt *rolls eyes* lol.

From there we pretty much hunkered down and had a very quiet night.

Niki

1 comment:

Sammeh said...

wow thats pretty cool that your grandparents got to see a friend that they haven't seen for over 25 years :]
and lol
you were finally able to go on the butt?
was that nice? XD
jkjk