Saturday 11 Jan, BHS day 12, Dunmore Town: Not much action today, just potter onboard and make plan to leave tomorrow.
Oana had a terrible night’s sleep, or rather very little sleep. Her persistent cough keeping her awake. I end up sleeping in the saloon. I hate to leave her alone back there but there would be no way to sleep. And in any case, I’m quite comfy on the settee with ear plugs in 🙂
We really want to get out of this anchorage now. Somehow, being trapped here feels worse than just waiting-out wind. Talking of wind it is still up, 20 gusting 30kts, all day.
Mid-morning a large catamaran arrives. He must have come through the Devils Passage. I’m surprised anyone would attempt it, even in a cat. The ferries are all canceled due to the conditions. But although the wind is strong it is now slightly south of east so maybe the treacherously narrow part of the passage along the north Eleuthera coast is a bit protected.
We call Bruno (the pilot who bought us here) to see if he confirms this. The answer is yes, the wind today and tomorrow will be slightly offshore at that point, and we should be ok to follow the same track back. But he did warn it would be pretty rolly as we pop out briefly into the Atlantic swell. Later, I go over and chat with the catamaran skipper and he confirms the same. So plan is made, we depart tomorrow at high tide.
Having a plan seems to motivate me a bit and I set about some jobs. Putting the kite gear away and then having a big sort out of all my screw, nut, bolt and washer collection.
I also research buying insert screws and bolts for the floor boards. Currently, they are secured with wood screws. But over the years I’m in and out of the various bilge storage so much that some screws are no longer holding very well. I hate to think of Cloudy Bay having a knock-down or worse, a roll-over, and all the floor boards popping off. What a disaster that would be. So I will put inserts into the current screw holes and use bolts rather than screws for securing. An eBay order is made with delivery to Jeremy, my brother in UK. He is planning to join us for the long Pacific leg, so he will now be our next victim to be bombarded with parts deliveries!
All the day Oana has continued her suffering. The cough is really bad now. She found some medication, let’s hope it gives her some relief. But she is in surprisingly good spirits considering.
We don’t go ashore today. Just stay cozy on board. We feel we have seen Dunmore, plus the conditions for taking the dinghy ashore won’t help Oana’s situation. Good news is that we have managed to pick up a decent WiFi signal that isn’t locked. So we do have some entertainment for the rest of our day.