Black Point

Surprise, surprise, a log from Beth!

It was an almost still night, with very light winds from the East, which barely moved us in our nice protected bay just South of Black Point. After gathering all the dirty clothes I could find, including the sheets off the beds, I left the boat about 7:45 to dinghy around the point to town to do laundry at the nice, new Rockside Inn Laundermat. I wanted to get there when it opened, so I wouldn't have to wait for a machine, and I hoped I would be able to get more than one. The ride turned out to be a rough one- there wasn't much wind, but there were 2 foot swells that had not been there the day before when we made the dinghy ride then. I tried to zoom across the top of the water, but it was way too bouncy to do so, so I had to putt along at a slow speed, which got me to the laundermat at 8:10.

As I drove up to the dinghy dock, I was a bit anxious as there was no one else docked there. Did they really open at 8, like the sign said, or was that only if they felt like it? As I was trying to figure out how to unload my bulging bags of laundry and keep the dinghy from smashing into the dock, as those swells where pushing me into the dock, I saw the door open and the laundry proprietress come out to sweep off the back porch. I finally figured out how to drop the anchor about 20 feet off the dock, and tie it to the stern, and then tie off the bow to the dock so that I could pull myself in to get myself and my stuff off the boat, then the boat would spring back to about 2 feet away from the dock, and hopefully bob there until I was ready to return. The proprietress came down to help bring all my bags up. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was the first one there. I ended up having the whole place to myself for an hour or so, when even the proprietress left to go get her kids ready for school. I had my clothes in the driers before the next patron showed up. Not exactly the laundry ordeal that we have had before at various marina laundermats!

While my clothes were drying, I walked over to Lorraine's Cafe to pick up the fresh bread we had ordered from her mother the day before when we were in town. It was so fresh that she was still taking loaves out of the pans in her kitchen. After that, I headed back to pack up my clean laundry for the trip back. I brought 2 giant black trash bags to bag up stuff so that it wouldn't get wet on the return trip. Another cruiser, Dick, from Cheetah II, also from NC(Wayne & Janet- Dick says "Hi" from he and Jane.)carried my bags for me down to the dinghy dock and passed them to me, and held the bow line while I got the anchor up and stowed and the engine on and ready to take off. It was a slightly faster ride home, as the swells were now going my way, so I didn't keep crashing on them and could zip right back.

When I got back around 11 a.m. I heard from Mark about the unsuccessful hunt he and Jessie from Contented Turtle had that morning. Noah got to play with David while I was doing laundry and Mark and Jessie were hunting. Turtle decided to head South to find a place for some South wind protection, while Mark & I decided that Black Point had enough of bay to give us protection, so we decided to motor around the point and anchor right in front of town. Could have saved myself the bouncy dinghy ride if I had waited another day for laundry! By anchoring in town, we would be able to then go to dinner at Lorraine's as the dinghy ride back in the dark would be a short one.

We hailed Lorraine's on the radio, made reservations for 6 p.m., and placed our food order. After reassembling our beds-putting fitted sheets on a bed when you only have one side not right up against a wall is a real work out- we did minor boat jobs until it was time to head in to town. We dinghied into town while it was still light and walked around a bit. Noah ran into Malichai, Lorraine's son, and when we arrived at the cafe, the boys stayed outside playing and had to be called in when the food arrived. Mark & I enjoyed chatting with another cruising couple, Ed and Dee from Sea Fox, and ended up having the place to ourselves for dinner.

Over dinner, Ed & Dee told us their horror stories from crossing-having a garbage bag placed in the anchor locker break open and clog the anchor well drains, which then caused the well to fill with water from over the bow. This enabled sea water to drain thru conduits from the locker into the vee berth area and soak their bed and all their clothes! They also had the companionway hatch open and a port hole window that opens to the cockpit in the aft cabin open when a huge wave crashed over the boat and ran all the way down the boat, down the companionway and into the cockpit window. When they arrived in Bimini, they ended up hosing out the vee berth with fresh water to get all the salt out! What a disaster! But they are still cruising.

We headed back to the boat in the dark and had no problem finding our boat, as Mark had turned on a light in the cockpit, and we were about the 4th boat from the shore, and it was almost a full moon. All the running around with Malichai apparently wore Noah out, as he was asleep by 9 - almost a record for him! We messed about with the SSB radio, because I'd recovered the serial cables from under the bed while the sheets were off. The computer now controls the frequency tuning on the radio automatically, making it much easier to tune the radio when sending emails like this one. We followed Noah's lead shortly, and slept soundly.