Saturday, February 18th was an errand day in Rock Sound. We went to both grocery stores and had the
empty propane bottle refilled. Having a
choice of two well stocked grocery stores is a real treat.
Sunday we played
tourist with Bev and Allan from DAGNY and Jim and Cynthia from NEVERLAND. We walked to the caves and spent some time
spelunking. The caves are beautiful with natural light from holes in the
ceiling where the tree roots extend straight down for over 30 feet. The colors
of the rocks and the shapes are gorgeous. After the caves we walked to the blue
hole in town and enjoyed watching the fish and the enthusiastic small children
feeding the fish. In the afternoon the wind shifted to SW and the anchorage on
the town side was uncomfortable so we did the Rock Sound Shuffle and moved to
the west side of the harbor.
Monday we moved the boat back to the town side of the
anchorage. I spent the morning at a very
nice little gift shop, the Blue Seahorse, using their internet. The two cousins
who run the shop are very talented and create all of the jewelry and artwork
themselves. They make delicious coffee and welcome boaters to use their
internet. Bill spent the morning ferrying
fuel and water to the boat in jerry cans. In the evening we had drinks on
SEAHAWK with Burry and Wendy and their dog Maggie.
Tuesday we had a fantastic lunch at Rosies with DAGNY and
NEVERLAND. We had heard of Rosie from
many other cruisers. This is the kind of place where people have a meal there
then have happy memories for months afterwards.
Rosie runs a restaurant and has rental cottages on the beach side of the
island. She is the cook, cleaner, chauffeur, maintenance department, and
entertainment. When making reservations
she asks what you would like to eat and when you would like to be picked up at
the dock. The food is fresh because she only buys what she needs for the day.
She picks up the guests at the dock, provides a narrated tour and directions to
beaches while driving to her restaurant.
After arriving at the restaurant there is time to walk on the beach
while waiting for the food to be cooked. The food is beyond delicious. I could not decide which item on my plate was
the best. I had grouper smothered in
onions and okra, peas and rice, coleslaw, and fried plantains. Bill had the fried grouper. The others in our group had fried snapper and
jerked fish. We all joined the clean plate club. After lunch Rosie showed us her photo album.
She has met the Queen and Nelson Mandela.
All six of her children have post-doctorate degrees. She is an amazing woman!
Tuesday evening we again shuffled around the harbor,
although our shuffle was slower than usual.
We were expecting a wind shift and squalls during the night so we moved
to the south side of the harbor near Pigeon Bay. DAGNY and NEVERLAND also moved. None of us could get our anchors to set in
this area. NEVERLAND headed for Poison
Point and they were able to anchor.
DAGNY decided to go back towards town (SEAHAWK had tried this same
re-anchoring dance earlier in the day and moved back). We were having engine
problems so we had sailed to Pigeon Bay then we slowly limped our way back
towards town. The engine was “hunting”. The rpms were all over the place and if
we ran the engine over just over idle speed the batteries were
overcharging. Once we were anchored we
decided to worry about the engine in the morning as there was nothing we could
do at the moment and invited DAGNY and SEAHAWK over for drinks. In another small world moment it turned out
that Burry (who is a friend of Philippe, CORRET’s original owner) wrote the
Craigslist ad that caused us to go look at CORRET in the first place.
Wednesday Bill diagnosed the engine trouble. Although we had gone through all of the worst
case scenarios in our minds it luckily turned out to be a broken grounding
wire. Bev and I spent a couple hours
doing laundry and almost made it back to the boats before it started
sprinkling. In the night there were
thunderstorms with winds over 35 knots.
Not the most restful night ever.
Thursday we again moved the boat to the west side of the
harbor, along with almost all the other boats in town. The dinghy was not only full of water from
the rain, but also caught a needlefish.
The weather was supposed to clear in
the late afternoon so SEAHAWK announced a potluck and bonfire on the beach at
5:00. A fun time was had by all. The crew from one boat brought their dinner
to cook on the beach. When we left they
were waiting for their whole chicken to finish cooking over the hot coals from
the bonfire.
The Rock Sound Shuffle: The dotted lines show our travels in the harbor.
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