Beached and driven off by the wind in Thompson Bay

We are here in Thompson Bay, settlement of Salt Pond in the middle of Long Island for about a week until the high winds drop down and the ocean waves settle back down. It is a nearly perfect anchorage, protected on 3 sides, relatively shallow depth, good holding and amenities on shore with a couple docks where you can tie up your dingy and not drag in up some rocky beach. There are only about 20 cruising boats here verses nearly 300 when we left Georgetown. The grocery store has a good selection at prices which seem to be slightly less than Georgetown.  The local fuel station dock took a terrible beating in the last hurricane and was recently nicely rebuilt, you can take your big boat right up to the dock to fuel.  The same owner also build a new dock closer to where most boats anchor and we all use it for the dingy.  Nearby is a small bar (Sou’Side) with internet.  There is also a place to rents cars, a marine supply store and the tourist office for Long Island is also located here.  The only negative is that the water lines with RO water coming up from the south end of the island do not make it quite this far ( due to some political reason we hear) and the water is trucked in, so it has to be purchased for $0.30/gallon.

My starboard engine sea water pump has been leaking for some time, gradually getting worse.  I tried to replace the seal while in Acklins but was afraid to press out the bearings and having trouble, needing that engine to get back so I removed it, was able to drive out the shaft while on the boat and took the shaft up to the auto repair shop across from Sou’Side where they worked with me getting it apart and then to press on new bearings and a seal as I had all the spare parts with me.  We spent more time looking for tools and  pieces of metal for the press but all went well albeit slowly.  When I asked how much I owed him, he said $20 saying I did most of the work. Installed and the leak is gone!

I had left Amy at another beach side bar, Tiny’s Hurricane Hole to do laundry.  Tiny’s is the quintessential beach bar, colorful,  small, overlooking the water, tiny cove for the dingy, palm thatched roof but with the design and quality of an American entrepreneur.  They also rent out small cottages ( $125/night) and have a couple washers and dryers for cruisers.

The other popular gathering place for cruisers is  the “cruiser’s beach” with a few cruiser built picnic tables and flotsam decorations.  Some cleaver thoughtful person had brought over some small solar lights to light up the path to the “bathroom” (see picture ). There is also a land path to Tiny’s here which passes and old well ( see picture).  We checked and the water is brackish but probably drinkable if needed.   In the corner of this little cove was a smooth sandy beach of a shallow gradient where I decided to beach the  boat and try and change the sail drive oil.  I checked it a low tide, picked out the spot and marked it with a pole on the beach.  We went in just after high tide Thursday morning with low tide at 1:30 pm that afternoon.  I knew it would be marginal for the tide drop and it turned out not to drop quite enough to access the drain plug on the sail drive.  I did manage to clean all the bottom, give everything a good inspection and we waited for high tide to float us back off that evening.  What I failed to notice was that while the tidal range was increasing each day with the new moon, the evening tide was 0.1meter LESS than the morning tides!  We spent the night sitting thru another cycle of tides.  I was up at 5 am this morning to check, saw we still needed another 6-8” to get off.  At 7 am, the wind had picked up ( I was also fearful that with the higher winds out of the NE, would drive water out of the bay and we might have to endure another day being beached), we felt a lurch and suddenly we were floating free with nothing to hold us from running into one of the other boats anchored downwind.  In a mad scramble, we grabbed some clothes, started the engines, buoyed the stern anchor rode we had set to pull us off and tried to get anchored again.  It took 3 tries but we finally are anchored just as the sun was coming up. We are a little too close to the boat behind us but we can move once we are fully awake and the winds give us a chance to do so.

Acklins Island trip

We left Long Island early Monday morning. Sailing off the anchor and proceeded about 12 miles to the west.  We then carefully navigated a VERY shallow channel not listed as a route but with enough water at high tide to just make it through.  It was very strange to be motoring thru shallows what we would normally avoid, out of sight of land and not another boat in sight. 
We tried to go into Dollar Harbor which on the charts said there was enough water but we hit bottom going in and since the tide was now falling, decided to turn around and continue to the abandoned Diamond Crystal Salt works.  We unwisely decided to wait until morning to launch the dingy and explore as the wind and waves were too rough to land in the morning.  We continued south punching thru waves with the wind on our nose and once clear of the southern tip, turned southeast toward Crooked-Acklins-Long Cay, arriving at Long just at sunset. 

Long Cay had 2,000 people living at Albert Town at the turn of the last century and at the time of the chart printing, was down to only 35 people.  Most of the homes are now gone but all the streets are still there as is the ruins of the largest church south of Nassau, St. David and St. Augustine, part of what is remaining is still being used.  We walked by the power station making electricity, past the BTC office/tower creating a cell signal, past the small reverse osmosis center making plenty of water but never saw a person, only 1 dog.  The remains of the small school building damaged by the last 2 hurricanes ( and down to only 2 students we later found out) were still full of books, a few computers and a couple holes in the ceiling.  Many other buildings looked in poor shape.  The west facing beach was gone and the small jetty there was in poor shape so we headed back for the 2 mile walk to the east jetty where we left the dingy.  Finally, we meet 3 men coming up in a truck who confirmed that the population was down to 12 people now, several employed by the government.  We don’t think that Albert Town will exist much longer.  On the way back to the boat, Amy spotted a flock of pink flamingos so we tried to take the dingy close for some pictures.  We ran aground only half way there- it was very shallow, even for the dingy.  Near the boat, we saw a nice beach, a large grove of coconut palms and picked the largest coconut we had seen.

The large bight (bay) formed by the 3 islands is surprisingly shallow and we had a few tacks to get farther east to Snug Corner, arriving well after dark.  While our boat only needs 4 feet of water, we had to anchor a mile off the settlement as it was so shallow.  Once we got to shore the next morning, the first vehicle going out way stopped to pick us up and dropped us at the small school (30 children) and said to go in and talk with the principal.  Our driver turned out to be one of the 2 teachers and we had a nice discussion about the school.  We did see about 12 people here, several relatively new cars went by including a nice 1 ton diesel pickup, picked a couple unripe papayas.  The winds were to pick up and shift to the north so we moved SW to Delectable Bay, anchoring as close as we dared ( too close as we touched bottom several times during the night).  The next morning, we realized most of the sane had been washed from the beach, leaving a rocky shore.  We managed to get the dingy to shore, walked ½ mile to the road and headed south looking for Pompey Bay on this nice new wide road with no vehicles.  A couple did pass going the opposite way and each stopped to check to see if we were OK.  We stopped and talked with 3 older ladies weeding with machetes and finally a car stopped and took us right to the path leading to the ruins of a very large church, once having 3 turrets.  The church was located just off the beach and at one time, must have been surrounded by many homes, now only a few stones were left.  That evening a very large 6.5”  “money moth” arrived and spent the night with us

We walked about a mile toward Morant Bay settlement (abandoned) but finally gave up after not seeing a person or car the whole time.  A mile and a half back toward the boat, we got a ride and thought we would go see Spring Point settlement until the driver told us there was no town there so it was more walking back to the dingy.  We were off the next morning  back to Long Cay not having seen another boat the whole time.

We knew the trip back to Long Island was going to be rough as the winds had picked up out of the NNE, the weather report said waves 6-10 feet and Amy had already resigned to a very unhappy day.  We were not happy about subjecting the boat to the stresses involved but the forecast was not getting better.  We did get an update the next morning suggesting the winds would moderate mid day but they turned out to be double the forecast.  We had water crashing all across our front windows and rolling back into the cockpit.  Even when we rounded the southern tip of Long Island, we still had a rough time only making about 4 mph with both engines running.  We got all the way to a sheltered bay at Turnbull ( formally the pineapple growing area of Long Island) and enjoyed a quiet evening.  We had to wait for the high tide to get back thru the shallow so left late morning.  The high tide was lower now due to the moon and we spent an hour just grazing the bottom of the shallow section with our keels and ever so happy to finally arrive back at Thompson Bay in the evening, 279 miles later.

The rally from Georgetown to Long Island got delayed as long as possible but we finally had to all leave with the wind on our nose and some uncomfortable waves just off our bows- 46 boats in total.  We did catch a large gray snapper which Ed managed to mutilate while trying to clean and fillet it. Ours was about 23 inches, but the winner of the longest fish was 42 inches.  Our friends on Regina Maris caught 3 barracudas.  We have 2 large meals in the freezer.  The first night included a cave dinner at Stella Maris for over 100 of us, the place was very interesting but packed.  We ended up at a table just at the entrance but it turned out not to bad.  There was a nice bar, a band, a tiny dance floor and a buffet line all inside.  Put 50 adults into a school bus after they had some drinks, stop at a bar along the way and by the time we were headed back, lots of singing and some very tired people. 

They also had conch races and Ed won his heat but lost in the second round to Green Ghost who later lost in the finals.

Friday was the cave tour - 2 large caves near the anchorage and a very large one farther south on the island.
Then the regatta party that night - another long tired day.

Today, Saturday, we were up early for the farmer market - a real treat for us and then a trip for gas, diesel and water.  We are now all set to sail to Crooked Island and Acklins Island next week.