Wednesday April 11
Somewhere between Sunset and sun rise, Tuesday flowed into Wednesday. Neither Fred nor I are fond of the overnights and we both just want to sleep through it. I have to admit, it would be nice to set the autopilot on and sleep until dawn but that was not an option. Instead we take turns, Fred mostly, in the cockpit with the timer set every 20 minutes to take a look around and check to make sure we were still on the rum line on the GPS. Last night was not comfortable. It was cold, windy and wet. We sailed all night without motoring averaging 6.9 knots in 15 knot winds on a beam reach. The sea swells were about 7 feet, some coming into the cockpit. We have been through much worse, and I had to get my all weather jacket on to stay warm. I watched the sun rise and welcomed the warmth it brought with it. Fred wanted me to wake him up at 6:30 so I went below, told him we were passing by Rum and still on course to Conception. No need for him to get up. About 8:30 he came topside and studied the weather, called Wild Hair for the weather and we discussed our options. We decided it was more important to get a motor or another oar for the dink than to snorkel at conception. We couldn’t leave the boat anyway so we did what we thought was the right thing to do...make a turn for Georgetown. Sadness hovered in the air and we decided that Conception and Cat Cay were only a day sail away and if we found another motor, we could still go back, or put it on the plans for our next journey. All wasn’t lost. It was a good move. Not only did we not have a motor for the dink, we were out of propane. We have the grill to cook on, plenty of water and fuel. It was a bittersweet feeling coming into Long Island. My heart was telling me we were really on our way home yet, somehow I felt like I was home and safe, at last. Georgetown is full of cruisers, a great place to be when you need something like a motor. It caters heavily to boaters. As we came in I got the binoculars and started looking to see who was here. A site for sore eyes...s/v “Hippo”. We dropped anchor near them and no sooner than we turned the engine off, they were returning to their boat from volleyball beach. They were on their way to something and said tomorrow they would help us out. Fred is going to get on the Cruisers net first thing and see if anyone has a spare we could borrow until we find one to buy. Who knows, maybe someone is getting rid of one. If so, this would be the place to find it. Ordering another is an option also. Either way, we will be getting another motor...and/or another oar. I am grateful we made it here safe. Stasia is chasing her tail, Fred says she has been at sea too long. She slept the whole 31 hour voyage from Mayaguana to Georgetown. Time to sleep!
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