Alabaster Bay & the US Navy base

 Wednesday morning, we left Governor's Harbour and headed the 6 miles south to Alabaster Bay, a lovely, secluded bay with a very long beach.

The only other boat in the harbour left soon after we arrived so we had the whole harbour to ourselves - woo hoo!

 

Soon after arriving, we dropped the dinghy and headed ashore to find & explore the abandoned US Navy base that was on the other side of the island.

Jim was still recovering from a pretty bad burn on his calf from his motorcycle pipes so Carol & Laurynn walked the dinghy once it was too shallow for the engine.

It was about a mile to get from the dinghy to the base so it wasn't too bad of a walk.

Laurynn decided she didn't want to play soldier in the guard shack.

At its peak, there were nearly 1,000 personnel stationed here. It is so sad to see the condition now.

This was an interesting bee/fly visiting this flower.

You have to look pretty close to see the ginormous fuel tank hidden in the jungle. There are 3 of these.

The pink sand on this beach is quite lovely. We were the only people for miles. 

PB&J makes a great lunch on the beach.

When we arrived back at Alabaster Bay, Samba was sitting happily where we had left her.

However, the dinghy wasn't so very happy. The tide had gone way out and it was waaay high and dry.

We worked pretty hard for 15 or 20 minutes and were only able to get the dinghy maybe 10 feet closer to the water...

Soooo, we decided to chill and give it another try in a little bit.

Finally, with the help of a buff young Frenchman, we were able to float the dinghy and head back to Samba.

After a week of babying his burn, Jim decided to try swimming to see how his leg felt in the saltwater, Though tender, it seemed OK.

He found some treasures that he shared with Laurynn.

Tomorrow, we will go about 10 miles to our next and final anchorage before the family arrives.