Splendid Day Followed By Fire Drill

Manjack Cay
26 49.25 N 077 22.00 W

Yesterday didn't sound great. The morning was cool, overcast, and there was little wind. We decided to motor up to Marsh Harbor. En route however, the sun came out and the wind came up and before you know it we were enjoying one of the best day sails in memory.

We decided to forgo Marsh Harbor and sail for Manjack Cay, north of The Whale. It worked great, we sailed through The Whale, no problems with swells, and doing 6.8 knots close hauled under full sail.

Because of the wind direction, some anchorage other than Manjack would be better. We turned to Crossing Bay. When we got there, and dropped the hook, we found that it was the most beautiful anchorage that we can remember ever. We were surrounded by the crescent of a 5 mile long world-class beach. The far end of this beach was the back sice of Treasure Cay. Underneath us was unbelievably white sand, ground to a fineness somwhere between sugar and flour.

At night we had to wait until 10:00 for the moon to come up. Around 10:00 we heard a strange noise, bang bang bang. I went up on deck to look. Lo and behold it was a firewors display on Green Turtle Cay with the full moon rising behind it. If only I had a stabilized camera, I could have gotten a spectacular picture of the fireworks in front of a full moon background.

This morning, we made it to Manjack, but then had a fire drill trying to anchor. We tried to anchor three times and failed to get the anchor to bite. We tried both the plow and the Danforth anchors. Finally, we dropped a fourth time, and I put on my snorkelling gear. I swam out, dove down and burried the anchor by hand. That worked. When we pulled down on it with Tarwathie, it burried itself and held find. However, somehow we managed to knock the boarding ladder off the rail. It sank to the bottom.

I took a cushion for floatation, and started a search for it using my snorkel. When I found it, I dove on it holding a line to pull it back up. The line was too short. I swam back to get another line. "Look out!" Said Libby, now the cushion was floating away. Finally, I retrieved both the cushion and the ladder. End of fire drill. The water feels wonderful for swimming.