Bright and early we hopped into Poltergeist and traveled to Pig Beach. We had heard that the pigs loved fresh vegetables, especially carrots, but Paula refused to give up any of our scant remaining produce when the next provisioning run is uncertain. Instead she brought along a bag of Frisky’s cat treats, which she usually gives to the marina’s cats. Pigs eat anything, right?

We were one of only two small boats at first, and a few of the pigs, of all sizes and colors (from baby-sized to 200 pounder in shades of white, brown, red and spotted) trotted up to us quite docilely and appeared to enjoy the cat treats Paula scattered onto the sand. We noticed a small hut which featured the photos and names of all the pigs, and  was also the hangout of several roosters.  A big sign warned that the pigs bite, especially from the rear. Paula also noticed just how long and razor sharp the rooster’s spurs were. A small sense of foreboding seized her.

Just then, several charter boats and small watercraft blasted onto the beach, carrying bags of plantains and apples and lots of pig-naïve tourists. Although the guidebooks all warn that the pigs can be aggressive and to toss your offerings onto the sand rather than feed them by hand, those warnings were roundly ignored. With this bounty of offerings being dangled by hand all around, the pigs went nuts. They lifted their trotters onto low-sided boats attempting to climb in, snapped at tourists and each other, and rushed people on the beach. The tour guides  demonstrated how they could get some of the biggest pigs to “sit” by holding  aloft and withholding a treat. The tourists copied this maneuver with very mixed results. One massive sow grabbed a bag of apples out of the hand of a tour guide and ran snorting with it into the woods where she wouldn’t have to share. One fairly large snuffling tusker beelined towards Paula purposefully. She raised her hands, palm out, to show they were empty (resisting the urge to either scream and run or kick the pig in the snout) and the miffed pig turned away with a snort.

Needless to say, our enthusiasm for continuing on the beach cooled rapidly and we shoved off in Poltergeist, leaving a full-scale porcine melee in progress. We decided to continue our journey around the point of Big Major to see how Poltergeist performed.

This was a big test for our dinghy and its small electric engine. It is a little over 2 miles from where we are anchored to get to Staniel Cay (pronounced “Key” here in the Bahamas). There were wind driven waves and the breeze was about 14 knots. The waves and wind were behind us going out and everything remained dry. We went slow (about 3 knots) and only used 25% of our available battery capacity. So far so good. Once we turned around it was a different story. With the waves and wind in our face it started out as a very wet ride which was also much slower. We increased speed both to compensate for the braking effect of the wind and also to raise the bow up to deflect more of the oncoming waves. That worked some, but we still got really wet. Also, while it took the same amount of time to get back, we used twice the amount of battery energy having to push into the wind and waves. We’ve already started talking about getting a slightly bigger and dryer dinghy and a more powerful electric engine. At least we got a closer look at some of the caves along the shore of the huge anchorage.

Just after lunch today, Tommy noticed that our solar energy control panel had gone blank. Further inspection revealed the 50 amp breaker that passes all the current to the batteries produced by the solar panels was tripped. He flipped the breaker back on but nothing happened. A quick check of all the obvious failure points showed nothing wrong. After an hour’s worth of diagnosis, it turns out that the breaker itself had gone bad. This is the first time we’ve ever had a circuit breaker failure since we’ve owned the boat. The switch felt like it was working but no connection was being made inside. Luckily Tom had packed a spare 50 amp breaker, and after replacing it all was back to normal.

Earlier in the day, our acquaintance from the sail boating group in our previous anchorage stopped by to invite us to his boat for cocktail hour. Paula baked brownies and prepared some nut mix to take along.

It turned out to be eight of us from 4 separate boats. We had a great time, sharing anecdotes, exchanging fishing lore, snorkeling advice, and comparing the different ways we’d each chosen to outfit our boats. As we have found is usual, folks were helpful, interesting, and fun to spend time with. Three hours passed quickly, and as sundown was imminent, we all hopped into our respective dinghies for our home boats. We offered to have the next  gathering on our boat.

Once back at C Ghost, night was falling. Paula quickly heated up the leftover shrimp, steak, vegetable and quinoa mixture and supplemented it with the remaining mashed potatoes and tuna steak. We polished off the can of mangoes and rounded the meal off with- you guessed it- “J”cake.