Tom Curry’s Point (outside Little Harbour) to Tilloo Cay, Abaco, Bahamas (anchored)
May 20, 2022
A long-standing “joke” is that cruising is “fixing your boat in exotic places.” A real difficulty in doing repairs is the lack of resources: there are very few marine stores here, John is working on a rolling or rocking boat, and we can’t just get parts delivered via Amazon.
Our new alternator needed a new shim because it was loose on its mount which can cause excess vibration. That vibration can damage the bearings in the alternator or the belt. John had to create a new shim by slicing a piece of threaded pipe to make its diameter just slightly larger. Once he cut this slit, he was able to widen it just enough to make it fit on the bolt.
He did this at our salon table while Lailia was rolling in the waves. And he installed it in a very hard to maneuver engine room.
Some boat friends were in an anchorage not far from us. They are hardcore cruisers who sailed for about 24 hours straight to get there (they have my admiration for that!). Once we heard that they were on their last few gallons of water we offered to make water for them. Their anchorage was pretty calm so we motored over to them. I am so glad we did.
The trio of dolphins just calmly cruised around the anchorage for a bit.
We left Lynyard Cay anchorage with a plan to be in Hope Town (about 15 miles) by about 6:00 PM. It was a great plan, but like so many of our plans, it changed enroute.
Shoaling is pretty frequent in channels between islands, especially near cuts out to the ocean. John was using our navigation instruments and proceeding very slowly just in case we grounded…and ground we did.
We were in a place that was charted as 7 feet in low tide and all of a sudden, it was less than 5 feet deep. Sometimes it is possible to back off when you bump but we could not.
Our friends came back to see if they could spin us around to pull us off but we were stuck and the tide was falling. This never seems to happen when it’s early in the day, by the way. We settled in knowing that we would have to wait for the tide to go all of the way out and then rise.
One nice-ish thing about being stuck is that the boat is really secure -it’s not going to float away. I cooked dinner with the stove gimboled (it was unlocked so it was always competely horizontal) so when we tilted a bit as the tide went out our food didn’t slosh over the side of the pot.
This section of the Bahamas was hit really hard by Hurricane Dorian. The devastation is really apparent here – that storm’s 20 foot surge pushed boats up in the trees. Ruined houses, boats, and piers are all over.
We floated off at around 10:00 PM and anchored close to our friends for the night.
We still plan to visit Hope Town which is incredibly close.
This was our theme song as we were waiting for the rising tide. It’s difficult to be too anxious if you’re singing.
Life on Lailia 