A hike a rain, a sail, a quick provision stop, then back to Chatham bay. Tried a different beach bbq joint since they got to us before Vanessa did. They sure loaded us up with lots of ribs, tuna, fixens and some left overs to take home.

Nice and sunny day yesterday made for lots of evaporation of the local beverages, so by dinner time yours truely need some grub. We made a plan to dingy every one to the dingy dock at the end of the bay and they would walk the distance of the beach to the BBQ joint. Wayne and I would meet them in the dingy when they got there. That end of the beach is a bit rolly and sandy and everyone had just cleaned up. A nice sunset and healthy rum and diet, made for an interesting dingy ride. We got there no problem, but when we were to pull the dingy up on the beach the engine wouldn’t lift up, so we could drag it up on the beach, I futzed with the lever while the surge was going up and down. Tried a little harder and broke the tiller arm that controls the speed and direction, Still the engine would not lift up, so ended up just tossing the dingy anchor overboard and swam a shore, no real harm other than we no had a limp armed dingy.

Dinner was good, far too much food, but we tried to eat it all. Even took some left overs home, some super sweet deep fried things were the hit, as was the fish, ribs and I am told my in ability to form sentences was entertaining too.

After dinner, jumped into the dingy and tried to get the limp armed bandit to start, it didn’t want to as the throttle cables were being tweaked a bit. And we started to row the dingy back to the boat. I gave it a few more college tries and was able to get it fired an holding the arm in place able to get us back to the boat. Without having to row the whole way.

Up early as always, waiting on the rest to stir as we had planned to hike over the mountain to Ashton as we have never been there. Its the second largest town on the island. Taking a closer look at the dingy in the morning revealed what had happened, and a lesson learned, or two. I am stronger than I look. I sheared off a 3/16 inch bolt, one is left and it was missing a nut, so thats what happened to the dingy arm. Its back in not quite as limp mode, it work but still needs a bit more surgery to restore it 100%. And the real reason the motor wouldn’t lift up, was cause the reverse didn’t disengage the lock. Needed to go back to forward / neutral to unlock the lifting mechanism, oh well. These are what makes the stories and gives me more things to do during the beautiful days.

We hiked about 2.5 miles over there and around the tops of the hills to take in the sights. All around the top of the Chatham bay, and over and down to Ashton. Saw some colorful houses, killer views of tabbago keys and other islands we have visited. We took a road, that you would need a really good texas truck to go up and down, its no wonder the locals that run the beach bars come by boat to work. Over in Ashton, we met allen from Ashton, and he was our impromptu tour guide, even tho we didn’t need one and explained that several times. We headed back and he was in tow as he had to go do some work for Shark Attack who is also in Chatham bay. We has spotted what appeared to be a short cut, instead of walking the roads on the way up. After some discussion if the boys would make the trail, we tood the trail. A nice long meander through the hillside and down some rocks and put us right on the mark. Much shorter than the other way but still long. All in all about 5 miles according to the GPS and time for a much needed cooling off.

And some general laziness and playing in water,, Enjoying the sun and serenity as all but 3 boats left the bay this morning while we hiked.

Had our last bagette for a lunch snack, and some of the reheated food from last night, all yummy and hit the spot. Going to pasta it up tonight with some shrimp and salad for dinner and its shaping up to be a wonderful sunset.

We need to make some water, down to 1/4 of our supply, hopefully tomorrow on the way to Mustique we’ll get some good sun and wind to make it an enjoyable slog to the north, and make some fresh water along the way.