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.
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