Usually by this time in the year there are only weak cold fronts moving through, but not this year. We have yet another strong front to find a hiding spot for. Since we’re heading north we’re pretty far from all our usual hiding spots and have to get creative! We settled on Norman’s Pond which is a large pond inside the land of Norman’s Cay (where the famous airplane wreck is). Now this spot would be super obvious because it’s protected on all sides except for the small detail that there’s a narrow, shallow, sketchy looking entrance to it that deters most boats. But we’re not most boats! Let’s give it a shot!

So after getting through the boulder part instead of going through the normal path to the main pond we attempted to follow Sorn into a different, shallow little pool. We ran aground, backed off, then got pushed onto a sand bar that was shallower than we thought it was. So now we were stuck and the tide was slowly dropping. I admit to being super stressed out about all of this. We ended up using our stern anchor and effectively winching the boat off of the sand bar. Once she was floating we abandoned the idea of the second pool and made our way to the main anchoring spot. One of the downsides of having a shallow draft boat is that other people don’t know you have it! So the other cruisers were watching us make a “wrong turn” and probably thought we were idiots when in reality we were doing it on purpose! Either way, we’re safely anchored and Sorn has a lovely little spot to themselves!

Jason and I were out in the dinghy and saw another boat come in and run aground so we motored over to try and help. That boat ended up making it through but there were some cruisers hanging out on the beach so we stopped by to say hi. Overall the pond is a lot cooler than I thought it would be. I expected muddy mangroves but the water was pretty clear and the sand bars were nice to walk on. I would definitely come here again to hide from weather!