Day 283, Tuesday April 1st - one last time to Marsh Harbour

Day 283, Tuesday April 1^st

Julie enjoying the sail at the helm

Good-bye to March, hello to April.  The reality of the end of our trip is fast approaching as another month is ticked off the calendar.  We wake up in Lynyard Cay with the intention of moving north to Marsh Harbour to stock up on some fresh groceries.  The winds are somewhat favourable as they are from the East and we are heading north.  The route has a number of twist and turns so we do lots of sail adjustments as we follow the channel north..

We get to Marsh Harbour with sufficient time to head to the grocers.  Our depth alarms are ringing as we anchor however we are confident at low tide we will have a couple inches below the keel as we have anchored here before and the alarms ring when we have 18 inches under the keel.  Also the charts say it is 6 foot 2 inches depth and we only need around 5 foot 1 inch (or a few more if the tanks are full).  Off we go to shop and when we return the boat is not moving at all and we realize we are sitting in the mud.  The tides are extreme right now, but we are still surprised.  It does not matter much as it is just a bit of guck and the winds and waves are almost non-existent.  We will only be sitting in the mud for about an hour as the tide is coming back in. 

What it does make us realize is our “offset lie” is not as big as we thought.  We had set up the depth indicator to report 1 foot less than we really had, or so we thought.  What this makes us realize is the depth sounder is set accurately so we have actually had 12 inches less than we thought.  We have been braver than we intended historically. 

Julie at Snappas

After groceries we head to Snappas Restaurant in the hopes of some internet to load some grib files, post some blog, and read the news.  Snappas internet was not very good so we moved on to Mangoes.  Snappas did have a good internet password "buyadrink" which made for an interesting conversation for Julie.  A couple came in and order a drink but forgot to ask the waitress for the password.  They see us typing away on the laptop and IPad so the fellow learns over and ask Julie for the password.  Julie's reply was "buyadrink", the fellow was somewhat put off and got up to ask the waitress mumbling that they had just order drinks.  Julie quickly explained the situation at which we all had a good laugh.  Mangoes internet was not good so we went back to the boat for dinner.  Our patronage is often tied to internet access. 

Dusk at Marsh Harbour

Back on the boat we have a quiet evening doing some charting and planning for the great launch back to the United States.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson