New Year's 2012

We got to celebrate Katherine’s birthday a little early – before she flew back home. After Christmas, Kim stayed for a few more days. We visited Little Harbor by car and visited the studio of a local artist – Pete’s Pub and Gallery. His is an interesting story of an expatriate artist who settled in this area seeking artistic freedom. On Kim’s last day, we sailed to Man O War Cay, then had lunch on Guana Cay and returned to Marsh Harbor for her flight the next day. We left that afternoon, and sailed south to catch fireworks at Lubbers Quarter – a very nice show. The following day, after snorkeling, we left for an overnight sail to Warderick Wells in the Exumas. It was a light wind motorsail. We were entertained by crusie ships moving back and forth from Nassau, and fireworks at midnight from Spanish Wells on Eleuthera. We arrived on the banks in early morning, but crossed an area with multiple shallow coral heads, and with bad light (heading into the sunlight). We avoided all the coral heads but one. We hit it on the keel and rudder. After a check of the boat, we had no visible structural damage – just cosmetic damage to interior veneer (from compression of the rudder post). All in all, pretty lucky, and not something we want to repeat. We were almost to our destination when the throttle stuck in reverse. We were forced to divert to Highbourne Cay and sail into an anchorage where we could work on it. Gypsea Heart diverted with us and led us into the anchorage. We dove on the boat and confirmed that the keel and rudder scraped through the coral about five inches deep, but other than lost paint, no permanent damage. The afternoon was spent taking the throttle apart and troubleshooting it. Luckily we got it working again with Walt and Rankin’s help. All in all, a pretty eventful 24 hours.