March 25, 2012.

On our third attempt to head north we were finally successful. It was tough to leave someplace that you could toss your bathing suit up on the beach when you went swimming.

We had 20 knots outta the east which was supposed to drop to 15 as we got further north. About an hour north of us is the beginning of Nurse Cay Cut. The tide would change in our favor at 1515 hours.

So at 1400 hours we once again pulled the hook and sailed north. Since we would be sailing overnight and had plenty of wind we had a single reef in the mainsail. Thank goodness we did because as the sunset upon us we were beset by one line squall after another. The first one came with a sporty 20 minutes of 35 knots which had us rail down and rocketing northward. There was no moon what-so-ever so we were watching the stars to predict each squall as they ran across us. The stars would disappear and wham, a short lived ginormous burst of wind.

Since we would be traversing the most dangerous part of our proposed route in the darkness we ditched it for a route that we've done before. The new route would have saved us about 7 miles but we opted for the tried and true route.

We sailed into the harbor at Black Point without even having to re-trim the sails. We rounded up, dropped the sails and then the hook in the busy anchorage. We squared the boat away, reinstalled the outboard on the dink and headed into town with our laundry. After putting the laundry in the machines we walked over to the towns only market for fresh vegetables. We knew the mailboat had been in port yesterday so we were happy about timing our arrival with the arrival of fresh produce. But the joke was on us. It seems that somehow the islands food shipment never made it onto the boat. There were no veggies less than 2 weeks old in the market. Damn. I don't know how the locals put up with that shit.

Once home with our clean laundry we pulled the hook and sailed the few miles north to Big Majors Spot.

Our friend JoAnne was in the anchorage so we dinghied over to visit for an hour before going home to collapse into the well deserved oblivion of a deep sleep.

We woke refreshed and with a conundrum. One of our Lazy Jacks was shredded and hanging on by a thread. I'd have to go up the mast and replace it before using the mainsail again. We have a fairly benign clocking front coming through so the anchorage was already too rough for any antics up the mast.

So we sailed 4 miles north and into the confines of Pipe Creek. We arrived on a favorable tide and negotiated the shallow entrance without incident. After settling in Christy used the anchor windlass to haul me up the mast to replace the bad Lazy Jack.

We've come a long way. The first time Christy used the windlass to haul me up, one of us forgot to pull the anchor chain off its gypsy. One of us thinks it might have been the captain but thats not how I recall it. So the line hauling me up was wrapped around the capstan and as I rose into the air the anchor chain was simultaneously being pulled into the anchor locker by the gypsy. It would have been interesting to see if I would have gotten to the top before the anchor was ripped from the bottom allowing us to drift through the anchorage with me up the mast. Would Christy have tied me off, would there have been a nasty free fall or just the quickest controlled descent in history. Fortunately Christy noticed the chain being retrieved before it came to that.

The lazy jack is replaced and after one peaceful night here we'll be heading...somewhere