Up and Up Again

Great Sale Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
27.00.96 N 078 12.01 W

We were really zonked last night so we went to bed early.

Tired as I was, that didn't stop me from waking at midnight to check the glow of the banks in moonlight. Midnight was the zenith of the full moon. I woke and went out on deck naked. Lack of clothes was no problem. There were no other people within 20 miles, and the temperature was a balmy 72. However, I was disappointed -- no glow. Instead of the glow of moonlight reflected off the sand bottom, the moonlight reflected off the surface. Perhaps one has to have a full moon, at zenith, and with
still air. Oh well.

That wasn't the end. Around 3 AM we were wakened by a sudden and loud crash. It sounded like a tree crashing on the roof of the house. I jumped out and once again ran naked on the deck. What I found was our radar reflector. We have a big 12 inch spherical-shaped aluminum radar reflector that we hoist up to the height of the spreaders. The line holding it up had frayed and broken. I had replaced that line with a new one less than a year ago. Worse, inspection of the reflector showed that
it was missing a part. The missing part must have fallen overboard. Oh well, I'll have to improvise a replacement for the lost part until we return to the States.

Despite the disturbances we slept well and didn't get up until after 8AM. How decadent. Here in the Bahamas I'm supposed to be up and ready to listen to the weather report at 6:30.

Today, we were able to sail until noon. Then we had to change course, directly into the wind, and we motored the afternoon to our anchorage here. We also practiced taking a noon sighting of the sun with our sextant. The results were pretty dismal. More practice is needed, much more. I'll post a blog about that when we have Internet and I can show pictures.

Two more days of transit and we'll be at Manjack Cay and ready to enjoy the beaches and the snorkeling.