A Perfect Day

Saturday May 24

The last few days have been squally, and when the storms come they are spectacular. So we waited them out at Allans Pensacola then headed to Great Sale Cay today, the first part of our trip back to the States. We don't actually have to check out of the Bahamas, but would like to get our passports stamped just in case we have trouble getting back into U..S. We will go to West End, appropriately at the west end of Grand Bahama, to do that. Leaving our anchorage I put out my new fishing line with foolproof lure and crossed my fingers. The day was lovely, the winds perfect for sailing, the water gorgeous. Checking the line, there was a fish on it! We decided not to pull it in for the time being, but that combined with everything else caused Chris and I to give each other a High Five, and pronounce it "A Perfect Day".
Just about 5 minutes after that pronouncement there was a noise and....our headsail was in the water! The forestay had sheared off at the masthead, bringing the sail and roller furler down with it. Luckily it didn't bring anything else down on it's way. The strong winds and swells were pushing us towards a shoal so we threw out the anchor (sound familiar?), brought down the mainsail, and dragged the headsail and furler back up onto the starboard side. Although there is a baby stay, when we saw how loose the backstays were, we quickly attached two other halyards from the masthead to the bow of the boat. We didn't want to lose our mast as well.
Good thing our motor was back in working order. At a pinch, with the wind behind us, we could probably have used the main, but the thought made me pretty nervous.

*Q.1: What is wrong with this picture?

We kept heading for Great Sale. It's uninhabited, but a very popular staging post for boats coming and going to the U.S. There are sponge beds surrounding it which might be neat to see. We thought we had outwaited all the squalls but there were still several around us, making for choppy and confused seas. I mentioned to Chris that the poor outboard on our dinghy behind us looking as though it was wobbling back and forth. Chris had tightened the clamps on it as firmly as he could before we started out that morning, so we felt sure it would be fine. And it was, until the time we turned around to look at it and it wasn't there!
I was very tempted to retrace our GPS track and see if we could find it but that would have been along shot, even with a sound boat. It had been a very cheap outboard, meant to keep us going until we decided what dinghy/motor combo we needed, but still...

*Q.2: What is wrong with this picture?

Anyway, no use crying over sunken motors, we carried on. Getting close to Great Sale, we could see a squall heading our way and were keeping our fingers crossed we would get to the anchorage in time. It was hard not to keep glancing back at the dinghy and looking at the empty spot where the motor had been, a bit like tonguing a loose tooth. As I looked back I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a dead black bird falling down into the water just behind the cockpit. We immediately realized it couldn't be a black bird and looked up to see...our spreader light bulb dangling loose. The retaining ring had somehow come unscrewed and fallen off. Into the water, of course.

*Q.3: What is wrong with this picture?

But the good news was that we made the anchorage before the squall hit, and found a nice sheltered spot. Oh!..and the fish on my line? Got away and stole my lure.

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*Answers:
1: the sail and forestay should be attached to the mast, not hanging off the back of the boat.
2: there should be a motor on the dinghy, not a seagull
3: the heavy bulb should not be hanging by a thin wire over our heads