We were not in a hurry this morning, so after getting up at 6:15, Arturo and I made coffee and then ate breakfast before getting the boat ready to go, checking the engine oil for the first time on the trip. We cleared Great Camanoe before raising the sails for a downwind run to Brewer's Bay.
On this trip, Mingkuan had brought a pirate costume and on this long downhill run, he directed his mom on how to shoot a video for a cool riff on Pirates of the Carribean. Over the next few days he would run out and shoot various scenes and at the end he put together what looked like a pretty great video.
Arriving at Brewer's Bay, we peeked inside the bay to discover there was only one other boat there. The cruising guide mentioned that Brewer's Bay had limited anchoring room, and many charter companies prohibit anchoring there because of numerous undersea cables. Well, we had waived our chart briefing so we didn't hear of any prohibitions on this charter. The book also noted that they'd never heard of anyone fouling the cables
Taking down the sails and motoring in, we took care to avoid the reefs (which turned out to be so deep that our Catamaran wouldn't have run aground), and found the sand patch that the book described and dropped anchor. Snugging everything up at 1500rpm, the anchor held so Arturo and I jumped into the water to check the anchor. The anchor was stable, but Arturo noted that we were a bit too close to the reef. "It's OK for a day stop." "Yeah, we let out way too much chain."
The snorkel was weird. Arturo, Boen and I missed the reef that Xiaoqin found, which had a lot more wildlife and ended up all the way across the bay. It's a testimony to how much more efficient fins make you that you can swim all the way across a bay and come back. The snorkeling was decent, but not "excellent" as described by the cruising guide, though we did see a lobster. Nevertheless, it was a good stop. After we had lunch, we raised anchor, motor'd out and headed straight for Sandy Cay, which was so close that it wasn't even worth getting up the sails.
I'd confused Sandy Cay with Sandy Spit, and so was very surprised when I saw there were mooring balls on the west side of Sandy Cay. Well, we picked up the closest mooring ball since there were no other boats, and then swam ashore as we had the entire island to ourselves. The snorkeling towards Sandy Cay was pretty good, and when we landed ashore it was obvious to us that this wasn't what we were thinking off, as there was a National Park sign which didn't remember, and we remembered we could run around the island in a matter of minutes whereas Sandy Cay didn't have runnable trails once you were outside the beach.
We shrugged, since finding a new place we'd never been to before was worth it, and we had the place to ourselves. Bowen and Boen started building sand castles. "It's very good that your kids are so independent." We walked the length of the beach, which was big enough that we could be out of sight of the kids. We found coral, and then Ying and Xiaoqin found a super cute Atlantic Ghost Crab. I shot a video of the crustacean, which must have been mystified at the large number of cameras pointed at it as it skittered along.
I went to find Bowen and Boen so they wouldn't miss out on the excitement, and we found Boen who went to see the crab, but Bowen was nowhere to be found. When asked, Boen told us he went to find some coconuts. There was a good 15 minutes of panic as we ran around looking for our wayward son. "OK, maybe it's not such a good thing that your kids are so independent!" said Arturo. Eventually, though, Bowen was spotted coming out of one of the trails with 3 coconuts in his hands, oblivious to the fact that the rest of us had spent 15 minutes searching for him. "See?" said Boen. "He was looking for coconuts." Mark Brody, who'd be on the La Badine the whole time would later describe his perspective from the boat, where he saw Bowen wandering off, and then see (but not hear) the panic, the search, and the spreading waves of people looking for Bowen.
Alls well that ends well, so we swam back to La Badine, coconuts and all. When we had de-sanded everyone properly ("No sand on the boat!" cried Arturo and I), we got ready to move La Badine again, this time reminding everyone not to take showers, as our next destination was Long Bay and the hike from Foxy's Taboo to the bubbly pools where we expected everyone to get more salt water exposure. Arturo had checked the mooring ball status for Long Bay in the morning and it was very clear that there wasn't going to be a problem getting a mooring ball or anchoring at the location. In fact, when we got there we saw that the reservable balls were all the desirable ones, while the white balls were further away from Foxy's Taboo. It was a windy location, so we would expect to ship water in the dinghy coming back, but going there we simply loaded the dinghy up for all the people and went at a moderate speed.
Tying up at Foxy's Taboo, we walked the 2 mile walk to the bubbly pool, which was a much shorter walk than I remembered. The pool was a hole in the island's reef where high waves from the Atlantic would push through and create foaming water, much like a Jaccuzi but at Caribbean temperatures instead of a hot tub. It was a fun activity and a change from the snorkeling and swimming, and the weather was warm enough that the water was fun.
When we were done we walked back and had drinks at Foxy's (non alcoholic for us), and then dinghy'd back to La Badine in 2 batches so that we wouldn't ship too much water into the dinghy. It was much too windy to risk paddleboarding, so we raised the dinghy and made dinner, eating the rest of the quinoa. The next day's weather forecast called for a small craft advisory, but we were in protected waters. The stargazing was good, but the clouds started gathering and the bright moon made it difficult.
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