Little Harbour

Saturday March 22, 2014
26 19 655 N
76 59 951 W

Stormy weather is expected to arrive next Tuesday and hang around for a while, so we decided we needed to start exploring sooner rather than later. It took us a while to get organized and we were not underway till about 11:30 AM. We did not have time to reload the dinghy but the forecast was benign so I resolved to tow it. Little Harbour is only about 25 miles away but high tide in the area was about 1:00 PM and we needed to arrive at 1/2 tide or better to make it thru the 3.5' deep entrance.

The weather was a bit more blustery than expected. No big deal for Tide Hiker, but a big deal for the dinghy. If the dinghy was swamped, or flipped over, or if the towing eye pulled out, we would have a big problem. Towing it also slows us down somewhat.

The flag is a bit hard to see on the "middle" boat.

We arrived at the entrance at about 3:30 PM so we had a bit more than 1/2 tide and we made it thru the entrance with about a foot under the keel. The harbour is very well protected but too small to anchor, so there are a few moorings provided by "Pete's Pub" and there was a couple free. Taking a mooring involves a lot of focus, but as we approached Deidre called out "Look, a turtle!" My response was an unfriendly "Where is the bloody mooring?" (Once we are withing 20' I am steering blind and need a stream of input.) She returned momentarily to the task at hand, but then called out "Look, and Australian flag!" and once again my response was "Where is the bloody mooring?" Sometimes I just plain forget that she is the Admiral and I am just the captain.

Looking back at the entrance

Since the dink was already in the water I immediately took of visit the Australian boat. Turns out he was from Beaumaris, so that was a treat. We agreed to go ashore together for dinner at Pete's Pub that evening.

We headed ashore about 6 PM and picked up another couple who were looking for a ride. It was now low tide and we headed for "the beach". Deidre was a bit dressed up so the guys did the gallant thing and jumped over the side as we touched bottom. Much to our surprise we immediately went arse deep into what I can only describe as "sucking mud". I thought I could pull myself out by leaning on the dinghy but my shoes would not let go. Ended up pulling my feet out and them reaching head first into the water to find my shoes.Of course I was now wet and dirty from top to bottom.

Pete's Pub

Pete's Pub was basically a palm front roof and sand floor place. But the food ended up being pretty decent. I was pleased to get back to the boat for a shower and to warm up.

The library at Little Harbour

We had thought about staying two nights. Sunday morning we went ashore again and looked around for about 15 minutes and realized that was "it".

High tide was moving about 1 hour later each day and so departure Monday would have been another hour later and the weather..... so we dropped the mooring immediately after lunch.

We thought maybe we could drop anchor somewhere in the way back, and still be able to get back early to MH if the weather packed up early.

We passed through the "Bight of Old Robinson". This is an area that has "blue holes". These are giant caves in the limestone that connect underground miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. You can see them quite easily. The tide travels through them and so swimmers have to keep away or they can be sucked in. There is one hole here where two kids were drowned.