The latter part of our passage to Royal Island turned out to be wet and windy and involved donning our foul weather gear …. more like warm Irish weather than the Bahamas! As forecast, the rain squalls weren’t too severe and had there were no thunderstorms so we were quite happy that both we and the boat could handle it without any problem. We have now designated the engine room as the place to dry off sodden clothing; it works a charm. We discovered that the Caribbean sun has been slowly rotting the stitching of the staysail when the ring at the head of the sail parted from the sail and the staysail ended up on the deck at about 6:00AM. We had earmarked overhauling the sails as a task to be done when back in the Chesapeake ….. Anyway, guess who was sent up the mast the following morning to retrieve the halyard … yes, it was the lighter of the two of us and the view from the top spreader was fantastic! (Does this sound familiar, Karen????)
The anchorage in Royal Island was quite a lovely well protected spot (apart from the house flies); we were the only boat in the bay initially and thought it quite idyllic. Fortunately the two motor boats that joined us were quiet neighbours. We saw a turtle and some round sea creatures on the sea bed that resembled sea urchins but had soft jellyfish-like pulsating bottoms; not sure what they were.
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Redundant Crew
There is nothing quite like the view from the top of the mast, but try telling that to your brother, Hope ! He has decided that the first spreader is already high enough! Much better to dictate proceedings from the cockpit. Four people have been to the top of our mast this month, none of them William 🙂