After a three day stay, we left the Big Major's Spot anchorage near Staniel Cay early in the morning and headed to Black Point. Since the wind was not in our favor, it was a 10 mile motor. On arrival we dropped anchor, loaded up the dinghy with three big bags of laundry and headed for Rockside Laundry.
Leaving Jen with the laundry, Quinn and I returned to Mirasol to fetch the five boxes of school books we picked up in Ft Lauderdale. The Seven Seas Cruising Association organized a small fleet of boats to bring school books donated by Florida school districts to various islands of the Exumas. We were happy to volunteer. The organizers did a thorough job putting it all together and must have put in a great deal of effort. Since we were already going to the Exumas, I suspect the delivery was the easy part.
Laundry and book delivery complete we retired to Mirasol for lunch and a short nap. Jen spied the weekly Mail Boat arriving, which means fresh produce at the grocery store. We piled back into the dinghy and headed back in to shore to see what we could find. While Jen vied with the other cruisers for the limited supply of fresh veg, Quinn and I walked up the road to see what was going on at Lorraine's Cafe. It was very much like we left it two years ago. A very friendly place where you can get access to the internet, sip a beverage and catch up with the world a little bit. We found out that there was a BBQ buffet planned for the following night so we signed up and headed back to the grocery to find Jen. Jen had some success at the market so we grabbed the booty and headed back to the dinghy.
Since the Mail Boat was in, so were all the cruisers and the dock was quite crowded with all their dinghies. I had to climb over several to get to ours. As I was about to step onto ours, the dingy I was standing on started to drift backwards. I chose to make a jump for it... and chose poorly. Fortunately, I had nothing much in my pockets as I splashed down chest deep next to our dinghy. Jen, Quinn and the crowd on the dock all found it very amusing. Oh well, after 3 years of clambering around on dinghies it was about time, I suppose!
The following day we hiked to the east side of the island to explore two of the ocean side beaches. Jen found a bunch of sea glass and Quinn found several shells he liked. Once finished with the first beach, the sky looked a little threatening so we skipped the second beach and headed back to the boat. As six o'clock rolled around it was back to shore to Lorrain's Cafe for the BBQ. We met a family of four on the way and they decided to join us for dinner. They were taking a year sabbatical and enjoying the islands and it was fun comparing stories. Quinn had a lot of fun with their two boys, one 3 and one 5. As usual, Lorrain's food was delicious and the beer was cold.
We'll stay one more night here in Black Point, and then we think we'll move a little further south to our favorite anchorage in the area, Hidden Harbor. On our last visit, we spent several days there and had it almost exclusively to ourselves.
It looks like we might have a good weather window to get to Rum Cay next week. Rum Cay is a good spot from which to jump south to the Turks and Cacaos, and it's time to start thinking about that. The longer we stay here in the Exumas, the less favorable the weather becomes for getting to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and it's still a long way to Grenada.
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