Thompson Bay 1/17/26-1/19/26

George has been working on removing the old mainsail feeder track but is not done yet. He has been applying penetrating oil to the screws and tapping them with a hammer. In addition, he has been using his oscillating multitool and hot knife to cut away the plastic feeder track to allow better access to the screws. Then he heated the screws with the hot knife. The first screw came right out, but the second screw is proving to be more stubborn. He is applying more penetrating oil to that one and will allow the oil to do its work overnight before trying again tomorrow. 

When we arrived in Thompson Bay, I was very much looking forward to going to the farmers market on Saturday morning.  Just as we were about to leave the boat for the market a heavy squall arrived. We waited for it to pass then went to shore.  I didn’t find nearly as much to buy there as I did two weeks ago, but did come back with some arugula, sapodillas (a very sweet, soft fruit that tastes like brown sugar), and both pineapple and coconut tarts. Not too bad. After returning to Breeze On, we raised the anchor and moved to the other side of Indian Hole Point to run the water maker. The water there doesn’t have quite as much silt as that in Thompson Bay. The skies were too threatening to hang laundry out to dry so we saved a 5 gallon bucket of water in hopes that we could do laundry the next day, which we did. It was windy enough yesterday that most of the laundry dried in less than an hour. After bringing the laundry inside, we joined Dee & Ron and Jean & Michael for a walk down Indian Hole Point Road, followed by lunch at Tiny’s.  The breeze was so strong there that it blew half full bottles of beer a few inches across the table. We were all pleasantly surprised that we made it back to our boats after lunch without getting soaked by saltwater while dinghying across the choppy harbor. 

This morning I joined Dee and Ron for a walk to the store while George stayed to work on the feeder track. A very kind Bahamian gave us a ride to the store and we had another offer for a ride back. So kind. 

Basil’s dock, which still has not been repaired. Some brave cruisers still use it by walking on the outer edges. I am too afraid to try that. I was not good at the balance beam in gym class. George is in the dinghy at the end of the dock, waiting for me to return from the farmers market. He dropped me at the steps carved into the iron shore shown in the photo below. 

This is where I got out of the dinghy. We didn’t want to leave the dinghy there. Iron shore can be very hard on dinghies (and people, too, if they fall!)

                                                        George using the multitool to cut the feeder track. 

        The hole where the screw used to be. George has since removed the feeder track and has just one screw to remove.