Pittstown Point, Crooked Island, Bahamas

0 nm
Wind: SW 15 knots

Our adventures in Crooked continue. We drove Nappy to the airport this morning, where he took the plane back to Nassau on an unforeseen expedition. I went along, wanting to get out and see people and forget about some of my stress. We saw Blackjack and Reuben and Reggie--all our friends--and saw Nappy off. Then we took off back towards Pittstown, as Nappy had been supposed to help Frenchie and Joel, two other guys with houses down by the sand, to get some work done and wanted us to tell them he had left.

Nappy had also warned us that the tire was low on air, but he was late for the airport so he didn’t have time to fill it. We knew there was a compressor back at the house, though, so no worries. Then--clunk. Karl hit a pothole and the next thing we know there’s that awful sound--clack clack clack clack clack--letting us know that the tire was completely flat. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually had a flat tire in a car before, now that I think about it, even though I learned how to change a tire in driver’s ed.

Still no worries. Karl whipped out the jack and the spare and I wandered along the road looking at the bush and the flowers. I even spotted a hummingbird. But, wouldn’t you know, the spare was flat too. We thought we could risk driving on it as it seemed like it still had some air, but no such luck. Within five minutes, the thing was completely flat and we were driving on the rim. We drove, with our completely flat tire clacking all the way, back to Pittstown.

It was like a bad dream, the whole day. Karl got the original tire patched with the help of Frenchie, and then we drove around town, carefully, looking for a spare. Just when Curt, one of Zyndall’s brothers, showed up with a brand new tire, we realized the front tire was flat too. So now we still have no spare and a back tire with holes in it and Karl still has to figure out a way to put the new tire on the wheel. We’re supposed to take Joel and his dad to the airport on Saturday and pick Nappy up, but I don’t know if we should risk it with only a bare rim as a spare and have them miss their plane.

Karl’s regretting taking the car at all. We did it both as a favor to Nappy and as a way to be able to jaunt around town while he was gone, buying groceries, running errands. Instead, we’ve already wasted one of our precious days on the car, and I know we’ll have to spend at least another one before we’re done. I keep trying to look on the bright side--we’re still helping Nappy out, doing work he would have had to do when he got back from Nassau. It’s just so frustrating, on top of all my other angst about everything. The stressors of modern society, I guess. Cars, engines, other people. We haven’t sailed for a full month now, and I miss the simplicity of it: fish, sun, wind, waves. That’s what we’re trying to get back to.