April 19th Crooked Island to 25th April

April 19th Position 22° 12N 74° 17W

We moved out of Acklins Island in the north at Salina Point to the north to Crooked Island into another anchorage off Pitts Town. 

Position 22° 42N 74° 21W arrived around  midday 

It was good to see 3 other yachts anchored there but we could see it that it was going to be quite a rolly time. Would you believe one of the other yachts in our group which left from Cartagena was there too, it was the Dolittles Wally and Lori with the dogs.

Wally and Lori, we really had a great day with them

We all got together with the other people from the yachts in the anchorage for drinks exchanging information and the normal stories. Took the dinghy ashore and met up with Wally, Lori and the dogs and walked along the beach and track to the only "restaurant" nearby. 

This is a road, all sand

The menu was well whatever Willy short for Wilamina had on offer, it turned out to be meatloaf with salad and rice followed by water mellon and warm homemade chock chip cookies, and unlimited water or lemonade all for 15$. 

Meatloaf, brown rice and salad

There is a petrol station which didn't have any fuel (it was closed anyway) a church and 2  stores, you have to knock on the door of the house opposite for someone to open it.

Filling station without fuel

The store, it opens when you knock on someones door

So after lunch we headed back to the boat but passed by the "fish market" just a covered table where they clean the fish.

I went over to see what they had on offer. Well it turned out to be Conch, what you could say is a very large whelk, something I had heard they make into fritters, one guy Woody and his brother said we could try it, I was a little surprised when they said you eat it raw so I went for it, its nice, quite sweet but I would hate to think I would have to sort out which bits you can and can't eat.

The fishermen cutting up the conch, very friendly 

The conch shells pretty big

The end result, conch salad

Andy one of the guys said he would take some away and make us a salad, so off he went then came back with one prepared ready to eat, it was a mixture of lime, onion and green peppers. The guys said if we came back the following day they would take us fishing and snorkelling, no charge, there was no charge for the salad either.

So off we all set off again for the boat passing by a house on the beach where we met a lady Cecile who Wally and Lori had met the previous day.

She very kindly shared a bottle of wine and we shared the salad, it turns out her home in Canada 2 hours drive from Wallys home. We really enjoyed the day even in the rain onshore, the only traffic we saw were a few locals who beeped their horns and waved.

The boys 

Ok so it rained but it was warm rain and the sun soon burned it off

Lovely soft sand

The fender tree, donated boat fenders

salad shared with Cecile

The church

So it will be another trip to this place next sometime I guess so we can take the fishermen up on their kind offer.

Next stop another long trip to Rum Cay, so we thought another 5 o'clock in the morning start, as we went into Rum Cay the wind and swell once again being cruel to us being from the south east making the anchorage untenable, the last thing we needed a lee shore and rough.

Oh well plan B, another day and night onto the only place we could that meant the trip to Conception Island would have to go by the board this time it would have been too late in the day to see a safe way in.

Here we are at 5:30 I'm just coming off watch heading into Cat Island and looking at the radar and into the dark sky feeling the wind increasing the squall is starting, great thats all we need! Don ended up steering through it towards Cat Island but the squall surrounded us and going into this huge bay with coral heads was a no no.

So Don turned us around back into the storm heading out the other side, what a star! We did follow the squall into the anchorage after a while which did insist on staying with us, me on the bow trying to spot the coral heads in the water getting soaked, tell me is it possible to buy polarised glasses with wipers on?

Position 24° 13N 75° 24W

Dropped the anchor way off the beach, this is the furthest out we have ever anchored in what was 1.8 metres below the keel, trouble is when the tide goes out it drops to 1.3. Its a little choppy now with quite a bit of wind but hope it drops later. Don has been busy sorting out a wiring problem, me doing chores, washing, and cleaning.

BFN

Agua Therapy

Don and Glenys