We wanted a change of venue and even though the weather still wasn’t ideal for sailing, we saw other boats heading out of the protected bay and figured that it couldn’t be that bad!
Well, it was pretty bad in terms of being rolled, pitched and tossed around on a three-hour sail. Both Dal and T pitched their breakfast over the side of the boat and only the Capt. wasn’t looking green. We landed in Cane Garden Bay, which turned out to be a bad idea. This is a beautiful picturesque palm-tree and white sand bay with lots of bars lining the beach and is apparently a hot spot for the big cruise ships. It wasn’t very busy and there weren’t many boats there when we arrived. There were a bunch of people surfing along the north shore as the waves crashed in. This bay isn’t overly protected as the waves come in from the sea but there’s also a strong wind, which swoops in from over the hilltops.
We toured the Calwood Distillery where they still make rum from sugar cane grown on-site. It was pretty cool to see how it’s made. We walked back along the beach and the kids played in the waves for about an hour while Dal and Capt had a rum punch and kept a watchful eye.
Upon our return to the dinghy dock we discovered that our dinghy was lodged under the dock, was almost fully submerged and the engine cover had been ripped off from the pounding it was taking against the bottom side of the unforgiving wooden planks. Capt. bailed out the water with the engine cover and thankfully the little Nissan roared to life on the second pull (phew!). It’s a good thing that our dinghy is totally ghetto (the kids call it ‘derpy’) and you can’t even tell that it was thrashed around for a few good hours.
We slowly made our way back to the boat, having learned another sailing lesson.
We motored the hour West through more large swells and nestled into Great Harbour on a mooring ball close to shore. What a relief to be on calm waters again!