Black Point to Compass Cay, The Bahamas
Friday, February 6, 2004
Have we written about cold fronts yet? “Cold” fronts pass through the Bahamas during the winter. Yeah, we know, pity the poor Stines in this, one of the coldest, snowiest winter on record back home. Anyway, one was forecast to pass tomorrow and Black Point is not the place to be as the wind swings west and hammers most of the anchorages. So, after listening to the weather reports, we lifted anchor and mostly sailed back to Compass Cay to sit out the front where there is excellent protection for frontal passages.
Since the moorings were full, we took a slip, helped in by Glenn & Rita (Liberty, an O’Day 35). We wiped down boat decks and began, again, to make ourselves at home. Sandy did her walk and strolled beach while Bill caught up with the status of projects around the marina.
Sandy organized a happy hour for that evening and a covered dish for Saturday evening. We had fun meeting the new group in the marina.
Compass Cay, The Bahamas
Saturday – Monday, February 7 – 9, 2004
Bill & Glenn formed a team to attack the installation of new VHF antenna that had we’d started on our last visit. On Saturday, we made up a temporary, wooden mast and mounted the antenna on it just to make sure it actually worked and would provide good coverage. It did! Over the next couple of days we found an unused section of 2 in pipe, mounted the antenna on it, made a hinged step for it and erected the finished product. It still needs to be painted but Tucker likes to paint.
Sandy found a dedicated walking partner in Margie (Jubilant). Margie is active on some of the ham nets but, when those duties were done for the day she’d join Sandy for a walk. One day they left at 9:00 and didn’t return until 11:30! Sandy got pretty good at spotting sunshine tellen shells with their varied pink and yellow markings.
Socially, we had a good time each evening. Nearly everyone gathered each night, either for cocktails and a snack or, on two evenings, covered dish dinners. Really, it’s better to have covered dish dinners because the snacks people bring to cocktail hours are so substantial that they really ruin dinner, anyway. Speaking of dinners, once again, Tucker’s son had laid in a supply of lobster and, once again, we couldn’t resist! Bill’s no hunter, anyway. Sandy didn’t stop with lobster dinners. She also made cold quinoa salad, pickled beets, ham salad and gazpacho for our enjoyment.
On the second day we moved to a mooring to save a few bucks and for better ventilation in the boat. Sandy accompanied Rita and Glenn to the north end of Compass Cay to visit the “bubble bath”. It’s a pond partly dammed up by rocks where it connects with the sound. Waves pour in as the tide rises making for a fun swim. Liberty’s dinghy is a really good one but the water was really rough. To stay partly dry and to avoid getting beat to death hitting the waves she learned to stand up in the dinghy as it planed through the rough water.
Compass Cay, a beautiful place populated by the nicest people!