Sunrise on Sunday February 22

The wind is going to change this evening to the west, a direction that was not protected by this anchorage, so we needed to move today. It was actually a good time for us to move — the boat was a mess and moving always forced us to tidy up. The majority of the anchorage that we were going to, on the southwest side of Ragged Island, was shallow. Eric wanted to leave early to ensure that we could get a spot in the limited deeper area.

We got Kosmos ready to go as soon as we got up and pulled up anchor at 0800. There was quite a bit of seaweed and/or sea grass and at least half a dozen little things living on the anchor chain. The creatures were firmly fastened to it and Christi had a hard time removing them and dropping them back into the water. Here was a small sampling of the collection of items that came off the anchor chain.

In bad news, as we were getting the dinghy raised, Eric realized the dinghy’s solar panels were dead.

It was a relatively quick trip. We dropped anchor in new anchorage at about 0945. It was a bit rolly and uncomfortable, but we knew it would get better once the wind began to shift and would be good by morning. Eric put one flopper stopper out. Here were a couple shots of the anchorage.

And our location on the map

And a zoomed out map so you could see where we were in relation to Cuba and some of the other islands we’ve visited.

We never went to shore. Instead, we had a quiet day onboard. The rocking made all of us lethargic. It was very humid and the laundry on the clothesline never dried. The other family boats arrived later in the day, after the wind started to shift. This was the dusk.

On Monday, we awoke to roosters crowing instead of goats bleating. Here was the dawn.

If you look closely, you can see there was a cluster of masts in the distance to the left. We were surprised yesterday when we’d entered the anchorage and saw them. The anchorage they were in was very shallow — even the catamarans could only get in/out at high tide. 

Sadly, the anchorage was still uncomfortable in the morning. The shifting wind direction made the motion kind of weird through the night, and Eric hadn’t slept well.

We went to shore after we finished school. Since rain was in the forecast and it was a 1.5 mile walk to town each way, we decided it was better to stick close to the boat. We dropped off our garbage at the dump, which was relatively close by, so we could enjoy dry land and get some exercise. Looking west.

Looking east.

We were surprised at how much trash there was along the shore. We’d been told that the trash floats in from the southern Caribbean islands, and that the locals had no real means of collecting and disposing of it. We couldn’t the trail to the road. We eventually pushed our way between shrubs and trees until we came to the unpaved road.

It was not long before we came to a turnoff. We made the turn and followed the short road. It dead ended at a pile of charred debris that had lots of chickens pecking around in it. Clearly, someone regularly burned the trash.

We found the trail back to the beach with no problems it was marked with very obvious, attention getting debris. When we popped out at the water, we realized it was a little farther east than we’d looked.

In the short time that we were onshore, we’d gotten bitten up pretty badly. We were kind of surprised; bugs had not been a problem at Hog Cay during the day.

We were pleased to report that by the afternoon, the wind finally was fully shifted and it became pleasant and calm in the anchorage. It did rain as forecast. The sunset was blocked by the clouds. In the evening, the kids from the other family boats came over to play games. Keith had a blast with them.