Brad's Birthday!

4.4.11 (Brad's Day!)

After Pineapple Cays, we headed up to Governour's Harbour. This is supposed to be a great stop for cruisers, although the holding is very poor. The harbour is good for protection from big blows, but if you can't get your anchor in, it does you no good!
We are, of course, professional anchorers by this point and were undaunted by the task at hand. We sailed in there like we owned the place, went past all the other monohulls up to the only sandy area – about 50 yards off the beach in 6 feet of water. We dropped our anchor in the sand and after only two tries, had gotten her to bite. We were in! We were so much loser to shore than everyone else that we felt a bit out of place, but our anchor was in and that was all we cared about.
We headed in to tour the town, and didn't remember until we got in that it was Sunday. Everything closes on Sunday except the churches. The town was still beautiful – a small harbour surrounded by houses built into the hills overlooking the water. We walked around for a few hours and found a pizza place and a movie theater that would be open later in the day. A movie theater! We haven't seen a movie, in a theater, in ages!
We headed back to the boat and took naps in anticipation of staying up late for the movie. Well, once you're back on the boat, it is a hassle to get back to land. So, after stalling to go in, we finally admitted neither of us was that interested in going back in or staying up that late so we regretfully stayed on the boat. I was really looking forward to that pizza too.....
The following day was Brad's birthday and we headed up to Hatchet Bay. Much to our surprise (although at this point, it shouldn't be), we were joined by the trawlers. Although they were ahead of us, we were in radio contact with them the whole time. We had a great sail – 6 knots on a run (AMAZING!) and made it there by noon.
This harbour is a well-protected harbour surrounded on all side by rocks, so the only entrance is through a rock wall. It is very narrow and tricky in even the calmest weather. Well, we didn't have calm weather.
We were able to make such great time because the wind was so strong. Now the sea state had built to about 4 feet and we were being shoved sideways. We still had our sails up because the waves were too rough to take them down. With the sails up and the motor on to compensate for the sails and to give us better direction, we FLEW through the entrance at over 6 knots. We were very nervous and all the trawlers were just inside giving us directions over the radio on where to go and where not to go. It was like coming in out of the storm. We were in 4-5 foot waves and being shoved every which way and as soon as we broke through the rock entrance, we were in water as calm as a lake.
The trawlers had scoped out a mooring for us and came over in the dinghies to help us get a line on. They wished Brad a Happy Birthday and then invited us over for a birthday celebration dinner – homemade pizza and chocolate cake! It was like they read our minds – we had been craving pizza for days now!
We all went in and toured the town and then headed back out to our boats for a quick rest before dinner. “Barbara”, as usual, had outdone herself. Mark, from “Ibis” made homemade dough and everyone had brought toppings of all kinds. We had margarita pizza, hawaiin pizza, meat pizza, veggie pizza, and all kinds of other crazy pizzas – some even with stuffed crusts! These people are amazing and we are so glad that they have taken to us so quickly!
They made Brad's birthday a success and he had a great time! They even made him a party hat and a chocolate cake with a candle (albeit a tealight candle, haha)!! It was the perfect birthday and he is not likely to forget it anytime soon! The kindness of strangers has really helped us along on our first big cruise. We cannot even begin to think how this trip would have turned out if not for the generosity of those we had met along the way.