May 3-4, 2022 Portland Pudgy dinghy in Alabaster Bay

5-3 We carry a second dinghy with us on the bow of the boat.  It seems like it’s in the way or blocking our view, but it has it purposes.  For one thing, it is our lifeboat.  There are hollow walls that can store survival gear.  It has a canopy for protection.  And it an be navigated towards shore.  It has a sailing kit!  That also makes it a TOY!  Today we put the Portland Pudgy in the water, set up the sails, and went sailing for fun.  This was a perfect bay to explore.  We went to shore and walked the beach and shallow water.  

 

 

beautiful shallow water with sand bar reaching out into the water

anchoring the dingy

our boat

interesting break in the sand on the shore

 We sailed further down the beach past a person setting up a small sailboat on shore.  Very curious.  It was a small trimaran with 2 sails.  We were back at our boat by the time he set sail.

 

 

We made ourselves a beverage and took off in the dinghy for a “lost at sea” adventure.  We checked out the rocks at the northern end of the bay to decide if we should snorkel there.

this can coozie has suction on the bottom that holds it onto the outboard, perfect!

our boat through the cut in the rocks

As we were heading back, the guy was back on shore with his trimaran.  We pulled up close enough to ask him about it.  It was called a “Sea Pearl”.  Very cool!

5-4 Wednesday We had a storm blow through about 10:00 this morning from the west/southwest.  That turned the stern of the boat towards shore.  If the wind would get stronger and cause our anchor to drag, we would be pushed into the sand on the east, but towards rocks on the south east.  So we ran our engine for awhile to be prepared to move away from shore, but no problem.  
The afternoon turned into a nice day.  Today Dave made some adjustments for the scoop we use over our v-berth hatch.  It helps bring the breeze into our hatch over the bed where we sleep.  We love that in the Bahamas.  It can be adjusted when it rains to still let the breeze come in, but block the rain, similar to a dorade.  It was difficult to adjust from inside, so Dave wanted to make some adjustments.  He has some great tools for doing this himself.

 

 

 

Since we’ve been marking our anchor with a buoy, it’s been much easier to see it off our bow.  After we set the anchor, the wind keeps the boat behind it.  We didn’t see the buoy since the storm that morning.  Later in the afternoon we found it BEHIND our boat.  We were just drifting around the anchor without any wind by that time.