It has been an eventful few days. Our daughter, Pam and her boyfriend, Brad, flew into Black Point in a small, and I mean small, airplane. The plane left from Nassau and had room for just 15 passengers. It actually had 5 passengers, a pilot and a co-pilot. There was no partition between the pilots and the passengers. Fortunately the flight was very calm and the landing was smooth. George and I walked 15 minutes from the dock to meet them at the airport. We stopped at Scorpio’s for dinner before taking the dinghy back to Breeze On. Yesterday George took Pam and Brad to the dock and they walked a few minutes to the beach facing Black Point harbour. It was a beautiful day for the beach and they had it to themselves for most of the time. After they returned we had a light snack before heading to Loraine’s Cafe for a Super Bowl party in the late afternoon. Loraine’s was crowded and noisy but we were able to find a table with views of 2 large screen TV’s. The crowd seemed evenly divided between Patriots’ fans, Eagles’ fans and people who didn’t care. Our team, the Patriots, unfortunately lost and we headed back to the dinghy dock just before the end of the game.
When we arrived at the dock there was a small group of people struggling to free their dinghy from under the dock. George, in the meantime, couldn’t find our dinghy. The other people said there was another dinghy stuck under the dock and sure enough, it was ours. Not only was it stuck under the dock but it was submerged under water! The bow of the dinghy was about a foot under water, stuck under a section of the dock. The gas can was floating, the outboard seemed to be out of the water. Water filled the entire dinghy right up to the gunwales. We had arrived at the dock during low tide and by the time we returned it was high tide. What little wind we had was blowing the dinghy away from the dock so George had not put out a stern anchor to keep the dinghy away from the dock. He had left a long painter to allow room for other dinghies to tie up to the dock. We aren’t sure what happened but our best guess is that dinghies that arrived after we did pushed our dinghy under the dock and it got stuck as the water rose. George and I held up the stern of the dinghy to keep water from flowing in while Brad used the bailer. Soon other cruisers started arriving at the dock and chipped in to help us. Someone gave their bailer to George while someone else helped me to hold up the transom. Bob, from Carrie Mae, used his bailer and another person used a hand pump in the bow. When I first saw our poor submerged dinghy I felt hopeless but it was bailed out faster than I could have imagined. We were all to traumatized to take a picture at the time. The other cruisers were so generous and helpful. The only exception was one intoxicated cruiser (he had been loud and obnoxious in Lorraine’s) who walked by and yelled “why didn’t you use a stern anchor to keep that from happening?” I answered that we didn’t think we would need one. He repeated the question again and I answered that if we had known this would happen we would certainly have used one. Then he said “just a suggestion from a dumbass, dumbass!” before calling us stupid newbies. I thanked him for his help. I guess there is one in every crowd. I don’t know who he is and I hope we don’t encounter him again.
After the dinghy was bailed out we were both afraid that the motor wouldn’t start. But, after several attempts it started! Hallelujah! And, knock on wood, it is still running today.
We left Black Point this morning and motored 4 miles south to Little Bay, one of our favorite anchorages. We currently have it all to ourselves. Pam and Brad are on the gorgeous beach right now. This afternoon we will all go snorkeling.
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