Things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day!

By Thanksgiving Day, we were tired of waiting for the weather to cooperate for our trip across Exuma Sound to Highborne Cay. It was supposed to lightened up later in the day but it was still blowing 20-25 knots when Dream Weaver tossed her lines first. Their departure went uneventfully, except for the stern line chucked into the wind vane, which snapped off one of the brand new blades Mike had just replaced. 

The wind was blowing us against the pilings of their slip, so Andrew rowed out in the dinghy to put releasable loops around the pilings on the other side. The plan was to (literally) winch our way up against the windward pilings and then release stern, mid-ships and bow (in that order) as Andrew gunned it out of the slip. Unfortunately, my lock on the bow line, which was on a capstan, didn't hold. The bow of boat blew over into the slip Dream Weaver had just vacated and we were cattywampus across the two slips. After swearing at myself, I vowed that we were going to get out of this predicament today because I had no intention of paying for two slips that night! 

Amazingly, Andrew held his temper and set about tying 3 lines together and rowing back out to the  piling we had slipped off. With assistance from the dockmaster, who showed up and politely asked if we needed help, we re-winched our way back into our original slip and tried the plan all over again. The dockmaster lept off the boat just as Andrew hit full throttle and 45 minutes after Dream Weavers' departure, we cheered our own!

We put out the jib and motorsailed because we were too tired to attempt the double reefed main that was required in this wind. Our destination, Highborne Cay was one of the deeper and wider cuts for entering The Banks, which is on the western, more protected side of Exuma and the easiest way to island hop, but also much shallower than the Sound. We entered the cut with steep waves behind us and rocks close by on either side but fortunately the slack current wasn't against us as we were approaching shallows where we found Dream Weaver settled on her anchor.

We dropped anchor, cooked up some peas & mushrooms and packed a bottle of wine for a Thanksgiving feast on board with Mike & Mary. We had turkey & gravy, mashed potatoes, and carrots and lots of gratitude for a safe journey and gracious hosts.