Day 214, Wednesday January 22nd

Day 214, Wednesday January 22^nd

Osprey

We woke up debating whether to move on to a new anchorage today or hang out for one more day.  We had chosen this anchorage for its westerly protection as last night we were supposed to get a westerly blow, but it did not really arrive.  Winds were westerly, but only about 15 knots, nothing to get excited about.  Dawson has been getting up at 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker on the SSB daily and they had gotten everyone worked up about the “big blow”.  We decide to stay as Julie read about a hike up to a freshwater snorkel that was close by so we decide to stay and dinghy over to the trail which was about a mile away. 

Always hiking....

Sheltered landing spot

The dinghy ride was bouncy to say the least.  We were boating into 2 and 3 foot waves on the nose and both of us got wet.  As we approached the area we wanted to beach at, there was a large osprey nest and the bird was not thrilled as our appearance.  Soon another osprey with a palm frond in tow joined the first osprey and they stared at us.  Unfortunately those same waves we just charged through were crashing on the beach and there was also coral around and we did not want to puncture the dinghy or our legs so we aborted the hike unfortunately.  We decide to hike over to a boat wreck which is on dry shore but located within the bay so sheltered from the waves.  We land  on the sheltered side and start hiking, but need to get over an old coral reef.  We hack through some bushes and trees but are getting all scratched so we decide to abort this expedition also.  Third hike idea is to go back to the dinghy landing and hike across to the ocean (Exuma Sound) side of the island.  Again about 300 meters into teh hike, we bail as there are no trails and we are getting scratched up.  We give up on hiking and dinghy across to a nice beach where we will have the picnic we have brought with us.  This is a nice beach adn we are able to duck out of the wind.  It is only about 1:00 when we head back to the mothership.  We read for the rest of the afternoon until a sailboat comes into the bay and decides to take the mooring ball closest to us.  This is a potential problem as we are anchored and swing a larger circle than the moored boat.  We shorten our anchor chain about 30 feet and we think we will be okay.

We enjoy the fabulous Lobster/seafood chowder that Julie had created yesterday and call it an early night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson