Leaving Georgetown

3.23

Yesterday we moved the mothership closer to town so that we could restock our stores (water, fuel, groceries) without having to dinghy across the harbour multiple times. After being in the harbour for so long, it took quite a while to get the mothership back in sailing condition. We secured everything in the cabin and on deck, loaded the dinghy motor on deck and then headed for the southern area of the harbour so that we could leave early the following morning.
We had a good night sleep and woke up at 0700 to get a jump start on our 40mile journey to Conception. We were not the only boats leaving that morning; the winds that had been raging for the past two weeks had finally let up and all the boats that had been waiting out the weather were itching to get back out on the water. There was a mass exodus as we all headed out the cut to points South.
Once out of the cut, we all hoisted our sails and split off in different directions. After about an hour, we could tell there were two other boats that were on the same course as us, obviously also heading to Conception. We hailed the boat closest to us, who at the time, was racing past us closer to the wind than we could hope to go.
The boat is one of only three ever made, an Aerodyne 50ft, and he was smoking us. We made some good natured jokes at our expense and he invited us over for a beer when we all reached Conception.
As we sailed on that day, we soon realized that the wind as not in our favor and we would not be making it to Conception without motoring. We opted to continue under sail only and stop in Long Island for the evening, leaving only 15 miles of travel the following day.
We were tired from a day of slow sailing and eager to anchor for the night. As we were approaching the anchorage, suddenly the fishing line starting paying out! We were so excited we both jumped for the reel! Since I was already at the helm, I let Brad reel the fish in. He saw it jump out of the water and reported back excitedly that it was not a barracuda! We were already discussing how we were going to cook the fish and what a great ending to the day this was! As he reeled it in, the fish dove and took off in the opposite direction. And then, suddenly, the line went slack. Dagger! We lost the first fish we ever hooked! What a disappointing end to an otherwise boring day.
So, with heavy hearts, we had hotdogs for dinner, watched another perfect sunset and turned in for the night.