We left Spanish Wells early Tuesday morning. We had to go through a very narrow channel called Current Cut in order to get to our destination, Governor’s Harbor. We were advised to go through the channel at “slack tide,” which is the time between the turn of the tide from high to low or vice versa. In our case, high tide was at 7:45 am, which meant we wanted to arrive at the Cut right about 7:45 am. In order to do this, we had to leave our mooring at Spanish Wells at about 6:30 am! So we were up early and cast off our mooring right about 6:15 am. We slid through the canal that runs through the town of Spanish Wells, and got to the Cut at about 7:45 or so. Too late!! The tide had already turned so we went through the cut with 3.5 knots of current against us!! No problem; Auriga plowed her way through the channel, and we were quickly on the other side. After that, we had a relatively smooth cruise onto Governor’s Harbor.
We arrived at about 2:30 pm, and picked up the only decent looking mooring in the Harbor. As soon as we picked it up, Chris dove onto the mooring ball to check and make sure it was sturdy enough for us. Turns out it is a huge concrete block, so no worries. But he still needed to spend a quite a while in the (cold 76 degree water) attaching lines to the underwater mooring chain – poor guy!! W e are expecting a bit of wind here on Friday, so we want to make sure we are going to stay put on the mooring through the day.
The village here is quite interesting. It seems to be less of a cruising stopover, and more of a tourist type of resort. However, with the economy the way it is, they are suffering here as well. Many houses are for sale, and the town is very quiet. For us though, it has been a real experience. Everyone has been so friendly. We met an Austrian gentleman named Karl, who took us for a ride in his car to see the beaches on the east side of the island. He said he had been living here for 10 years, and had a homemade catamaran parked on the sand in the bay!
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| Karl from Austria |
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| Karl's homemade catamaran "Walking on Water" |
Our next adventure was to save Kai the Dog! At a bout 4 pm, we saw the Governor’s Harbor Sailing Club come to life on the bay. About 7 little sunfish, each with a local youngster, started into the harbor. As we were watching them sail off the beach, a dog waded into the water and started chasing the boats into the harbor!! Our boat is about a quarter of a mile off the beach. As the sailboats got further, the dog got a bit confused, and he swam right up to our boat!! Chris pulled him onto our swim platform, and he immediately went for a walkabout on the boat!! I decided that I needed to dinghy him back to the beach, so I jumped in the dinghy and he followed me straight in!! I zoomed the dingy over to the beach, but had to stop short since it was too shallow to get close to the beach. A lady who knew the dog, was on the beach, so I called her to call the dog! KAI, KAI!! She called him and he jumped in the water and swam ashore! He was so glad to be away from the British – after all he is a LEUTHERAN DOG!! Apparently, his owner was sailing on one of the sailing boats, and he decided to go after her when they sailed away!!
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| Governor's Harbour Sailing Club |
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| Kai the dog swimming right up to our boat!! |
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| He likes our boat!! |
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| Sorry, you can't stay here!! |
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| Going home...!! |
By then, I had beached the dinghy, ACCIDENTALLY! I tried to free it with the boat hook, but was unable. So, of course, I had to jump in the water and push the dinghy off the sand bank! I got the engine going, and scooted back to the boat, where I found Chris in his bathing suit about to jump in the water to swim out to save me!! Wow! What a day!! I am totally exhausted!! Time to have a rum drink!! I am hoping to see Kai the dog tomorrow when we go ashore!! See you all later! CHRIS IS ALSO EXHAUSTED, HAVING SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN THE WATER TODAY.
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| The "Liberty Clipper" from Boston! |
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| A busy day in Governor's Harbour |
Doesn't Chris have a wet suit?
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