Saturday March 31, 2018 - Treasure Cay to Great Sale Cay

Today was a long day.  I changed my mind several times during the passage but finally decided to push on to Great Sale.  I began early by getting the dinghy out of the water and onto the foredeck.  I left the Treasure Cay mooring field right at 7am and followed about a mile behind two sailboats that were headed to The Whale.  I was planning on going through the shoally Don't Rock Pass but when I saw the two of them turn left to go through the same pass, my comfort level went up a couple points.  It was about a foot below high tide so the whole event was pretty easy.  I motored most of the way past No Name Cay, Green Turtle Cay, Manjack Cay and on up north to Coopertown (on the west side of the Sea of Abaco). Active Captain showed two marinas with fuel and it was right on the way.  Unfortunately, both were closed so I ended up  going over to the east side of the sea to Spanish Town, for fuel.  The 3 or 4 boats in front of me were headed to Allen's Cay (not to be confused with the Allen's Cay in northern Exuma) but the wind had picked up and I hated to give up a good sail down wind - So I kept going. 

At about 3pm, the wind had dropped so I decided to start the engine and motor.  When I did, I heard an odd sound from the exhaust - there was no cooling water coming out.  I stopped the engine and investigated.  The water pump belt was very shredded and almost broken in half in the spot where it was slipping on the pulley.  Fortunately, I had two spare belts so I kept sailing (at about 2 knots) while I replaced the belt.  That is the kind of failure I like - no problem to diagnose or fix.

I was going to go into Fox Town (on the left) but was able to get phone and data coverage as I sailed by so I just kept going.  I sailed until about 8pm with east wind at about 15 knots.  After passing Little Sale, I jibed and motor sailed down to the anchorage near the south end of the island.  It was about 10pm by the time I anchored.  A long but rewarding (72 mile, sailing) day.

Today was Jaylen's birthday and I was able to talk to him and wish him  a happy birthday.  He is 6 today.  In the morning, he had his second baseball practice and in the afternoon, his mom Jeannine took him to Hershey Park.

Today was also the date of the Final 4 in NCAA basketball.  I spoke with Joan at about 8pm and Loyolla was beating Michigan by a good margin. Michigan was favored and it was half time. Kansas (my al ma mater) was playing Villanova later in the evening but I was out of range to find out the final scores of any of the games because I was out of range for the internet/phone.  Guess I'll just have to wait till I'm back in the USA.