The Current settlement

Saturday 11/27 the three boats departed for THE CURRENT settlement anchorage after getting fuel and water, which took a while since there was only room for one boat at the dock at a time. 

We had a nice jaunt about 6 miles down the Island of Eleuthera towards the Current Cut.  We had decided to anchor on the western side of the Island (and the Cut) to be protected from the wind.  When we arrived Last Tango and Maribelle were all anchored, so we decided to anchor between them. We dropped the hook and started to back up, forgetting that the dingy was on a rather long painter (rope) and WHAM the painter wrapped itself around the prop shaft and the engine died.  Luckily Steph and Kevin (from Maribelle) were able to untangle the rope without cutting it after about 45 minutes in the water with snorkels.   The water was so clear that we could see the anchor chain stretched to the anchor about 90 feet away.

We had a Saturday early evening cookout on Last Tango, and we bid adieu to LT and Maribelle the next morning as they were heading for the Exumas and we were waiting to head to Nassau on Wednesday.  They left just after sunrise as the tidal flow was going in the right direction through the Cut.  For those of you familiar with Hell Gate, you do not want to go through the Cut against the current…..

We decided to head to town and see if we could find a church service.  If you have not yet read it, see our posting “So Far…”

Our new friend Sue Martin, who we met at church, is also the town librarian.  She invited us to the library on Monday to use the internet, which we gratefully took her up on.  We also visited the general store and met some more towns’ people.  After finishing up on the web, we scurried back to the boat to sail back to Royal Island to be sheltered from the forecasted high winds. 

We sailed off the anchor with the Genoa and Mizzen (Jin and Jigger) and sailed a wonderful beam reach almost the entire way at 6-7 knots with a 15 knot breeze.  This was the first time since arriving to the Bahamas that we did not have to motor sail for some reason or another.  Mary really enjoyed it also and very vocally insisted on being in the cockpit with us for most of the sail.

She seems to be getting younger, or at least more fit.  She talks to us a lot and spends a lot of time near us.  She is also more curious as you can see by the photo….. 

Our anchor rode stretching to the distance in 15 feet of water

Sign says " Beware of Falling Coconuts"

Another idyllic beach with Bentaña in the background

Raptor!

What do I smell????

Oh, I found it!!!

We stayed in Royal Island harbor (we were the only boat there except for a workboat) all day Tuesday and did boat projects and read and worked on the blog (probably!) until Wednesday morning when we got up and departed for Nassau.