Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Well, bad news - my oven is toast!  The pilot light will burn, but it won't send propane into the flame tube.  Duane has diagnosed it as a failed mercury switch and he can't think of a "work around".  More bad news, this is original to the boat from 1998 - and Princess Stove Company was sold to Seaward.   They no longer support these old stoves with parts.  So we'll be shopping for a replacement when we arrive back to the States.   😢 It's been a good run, old oven.....

Fortunately, the top burners aren't affected.  I'm already searching for recipes for bread, cookies and cakes that I can make with my 3 other method of cooking - stovetop, microwave and even the outside grill.  We won't starve but the next couple of months cooking will be a bit more challenging!

 

On to sunnier topics!  Finally we're back to sunshine, lollipops and rainbows!  

We put the dinghy down for the first time in 2 days and went for a nice long walk on the trails.

 

Around the salt pond.

Out to the churned-up ocean. 

 

Different view looking into the sun.

Very windy still - 20-25 knots.

 

Up and over the hill back to the overlook of the anchorage.  Sojourn is right in the middle of the pack, close to the beach.

 

Since I burned 347 calories, I get to eat an extra Snickers Bar - right???

 

On the way back from the walk, we went to the cruiser hut - had a nice chat with Jerry & Donna and Darcey & Michele from New Ambition.  Rita's basket weaving class was just breaking up.  Jerry had a pile of trash ready to burn so Duane went back to the boat for our large amount of trash including the boxes from our mailboat delivery.  Nice to get that chore out of the way.

 

 

Back to the boat for a nap and some reading.

Near sundown the cruiser beach had over 20 dinghies anchored so we decided to skip it.  Just too many people!!  

 

Kris and Dean from Charm had sailed up from Little Ragged cut in the morning.   So we thought we'd go say hello to them (they anchored a bit to the south of us in Lobster Hole).  On our way there, Dee was on deck on Meshugga so we pulled over to say hello there as well.  We ended up chatting there so long that Kris & Dean happened by on their dinghy.   Nicholas and Dee invited them aboard so we had an impromptu sundown of our own on Meshugga!  Catching up with Kris & Dean - they're departing to the north with a small weather window to do some provisioning and planning. 

Fun chat - the Meshugga crew looks very somber here for some reason - I don't know why this only photo I snapped has them frowning as it was mostly laughter!

 

Someone (Jenny, I think) noticed that the moon was rising in a spectacular way over the island hill - so we all jumped up and climbed the stairway to the upper deck - the moonrise was beautiful - but it was very windy up there so the visit was not long! 

Fun day!