Spanish Wells to Egg Island

It was bound to happen. Since leaving Florida on Leap Day, February 29th, we have had no real problems. High winds a few times sure. Minor repairs here and there, no problem. Even a major repair that was beautifully handled by Captain with relative ease. We had been having such great luck....until Egg Island.

Our stay here started off well enough. We anchored snuggly after 3 attempts [maybe that should have been the first clue]. We were in a nice little cut tucked in between Royal Island and Egg Island. Beaches on all sides, reefs just off the coast to snorkel, crystal clear water, it looked like a little slice of heaven. We realized quickly after anchoring that one of our anchors was caught on a deeply buried cable running between the islands but knowing it wasn't a utility line, we weren't too concerned. We put out another one just in case. We spent the next day relaxing and exploring the beaches on both sides of us and swam some in the clean cool water. 

Fun chill day

With plans of staying here only a day or two, we quickly learned that stay would be extended when some nasty wind came up a little earlier than predicted and was going to stay around awhile. At least we were tucked in nice and safe, right? With the winds, came an amazingly strong current through our little cut. So no more swimming for a while and rides to the shore, even as close as we were, took on a more serious focus. That's about when our luck ran out.

First, Grandma broke one of her toes. Just walking through the salon, same as she's done a million times before only this time, one of the ottomans jumped right out and attacked her. Ouch!! The boat wasn't even rocking that much. Just dumb luck. Next, the "tan" I thought I would be getting on the pale parts of my back and stomach while snorkeling the previous day, was now obviously quite a good burn. I guess when attempting to get some sun in places that haven't seen sun in years, start with baby steps! Not 5 hours of full sun because you're having such a good time snorkeling with the family and lose track of time. Next, our little furry child, Sandy, found out just how hermit crabs defend themselves, especially very LARGE hermit crabs. She's now sporting a nice cut on her top lip. After that, the wind and strong current pushed us up into the shallow part of the cut and grounded us during low tide. Efforts made by Steve and Jake to get the lodged anchor up so we could reposition were not successful although some progress was made and they managed to pull us off the bar with the dinghy at rising tide and put out a third anchor to keep us from the shallows.

Last picture of Bud

After a particularly bumpy and windy night, with little sleep, Captain awoke and went upstairs to get some coffee started only to find the kids new dinghy with our 2.5hp Yamaha gone. Nowhere to be seen. Steve and the kids spent several hours looking for it in the wind and heavy chop while I hailed on the radio to anyone in the area who may have seen it to let us know, that there was a cash reward, but with the open ocean on one side, about a 700 sq mile open area on the other, and the winds and the currents - it was probably already to Cuba by then, unless someone had stolen it in the night, then we obviously wouldn't find it.

Great, so now what? Gram's foot is a nice shade of purple, my burn is competing with it on the color wheel while adding full coverage blisters for effect and we're down to one dinghy. The kids took the loss of their "car" surprisingly well [maybe because they would no longer have to walk the dogs in the mornings] and luckily, Steve had removed a lot of the important items from it the night before. Now we just had 2 more days of waiting out the weather before we could make our jump to the Exumas.

We did our best waiting out the weather, which wasn't our best by any means. The boat seemed to shrink on us as everyone's stress was a little higher than usual. Outdoor activities were slim to none with such rough weather so that wasn't helping matters and Gram and myself weren't feeling topnotch either. I won't bore you with anymore details other than to say the good news is Gram's toe is mending, my blisters are improving, Sandy will have a cool scar on her lip to show all the other dogs what a tough girl she is, there were no fisticuffs, no one stabbed anyone else and no permanent relationship damage was done. The days did pass, however slowly, and we were even able to have a hotdog/marshmallow roast before burning our trash the night before we left since the winds finally laid down and we managed to leave one of our Easter Conchs on a beach on Egg Island for someone to find. [We thought it was appropriate.]

Easter Conch #2

25°29.714'N

076°53.229'W

Steve used his dive gear to successfully dislodge the anchor before departure and with full throttles, we sped out of there, happily putting "Rotten" Egg Island in our wake. Hopefully our run of bad luck stays anchored there too. And knowing how God works, we're hoping whoever finds our little dinghy "Bud", is able to put it to good use.

Goodbye Egg Island!!

Next stop, Ship Channel Cay, Exumas!

~Mimzie