Chub Cay - 1-13-07

January 13, 2007 - Chub Cay

Well, the weather has been very windy and we haven’t gotten away. Hope tomorrow will be the day that we can head to Nassau. Hope to re-stock there and then head south to the Exumas.

Yesterday, Mike and I decided to go for a walk around the island. We went to the end of the road which was also the end of the island near Frazer’s Hog Cay where we found the last house, Pointe Nirvana. We had seen its impressive outline from the ocean several days before. We started back when along came a red Honda Element. The driver stopped when she got to us, rolled down her window and invited us to come have a cold drink with her and her husband. We thought, “Why not?” Our new friend, Pat, showed us all around their beautiful home. We sat in the top level, a crow’s nest area, where we got an expansive view of the beautiful water all around. Pat and her husband are from Houston and live on the island on and off. Her husband, Wayne, formerly owned the island, in part, and sold several years ago to the Moss Corporation. Moss now is completely renovating the marina to become a world class sportfishing center. As a result, where there were formerly 80 workers, there are now 800 construction people working around the clock to get the resort ready. There’s a big fishing tournament Jan. 17, but I don’t think they’ll have it done by then.

Pat had been shelling on the beach earlier and showed us exquisite shells she had found—ones that I had never seen before. She told us they are seasonal. She had met another couple on the beach the day before who were sailors but berthed in the marina. It turned out that they too were from Burnt Store Marina, but we didn’t recognize their names. They were gone when we returned, but we’ll keep an eye out for them. Pat had never heard of Punta Gorda and here she’d had two couples, back to back, from there.

We set out early for Nassau, but our engine overheated within an hour. Being prudent especially since the winds were in the 25-30 knot range and the seas were 5’-7’, we turned back. The only other boat in the harbor was Turning Point, skippered by Tom from Alaska and with whom we had had cocktails previously. Tom, who runs a machine shop in Alaska when he’s not sailing, proved a valuable hand in helping Mike solve the problem of a broken impeller. After a half-day’s work we were all fixed up and ready to go on Sunday.