Our Ocean Front Condo !

Ok, so how did we get here the next day ?

Earlier that morning;

It was still blowing around 20-25 knots, but a little more out of the south in the morning.

Well, we wake up in the morning and we still have not moved. The winds have shifted almost to the south from the southeast. I am now feeling pretty confident the anchor will continue to hold after 18 hours on the hook. After breakfast, Linda is sitting in the cockpit reading and I am reading down below. We have decided to wait here another day because of predicted squalls out of the west this evening. Anyways Linda decides to come down below to read for a while around 10:30. About 10 minutes later, BANG!, we bounce off the hard bottom. I immediately run up and start the engine and put it into forward. Already too late, the wind is pushing us hard to the shore, with each wave we are pushed further in. Finally, I realize we can not power off the very hard bottom. It is also right at high tide. I haul in our obviously, now useless Manson Supreme anchor, which has never dragged after setting in the 4 years we have had it, and one previous trip to the Bahamas. We lower the dinghy and motor. We load the anchor in the dinghy and I go out as far as I can go to drop the anchor. Back on the boat we start to haul the anchor back in and it will not set. So I go to our backup, our Delta anchor, which has not been off the anchor roller in the 4 years we have had the Manson Supreme. It actually had been upside down in the anchor roller so not to interfere with the Manson and its anchor rode.

 

The one other sailboat in the anchorage (“J-Dip” may not have that spelled correctly) pulls their anchor and very graciously motors over to offer to tow us, while I am trying to reset the Manson. I decline their generous offer, I do not want to put them at risk. We have insurance and we are in no physical danger. We can hop ashore from the dinghy at any time. In the back of my mind I am thinking, I guess we may be going skiing this winter after all.

So we pull out the Delta with the dinghy and it sets immediately, unfortunately in my rush I did not get the best angle on it. Of course, now the tide is going down and all the holding power is not going to pull us off and if it did the stern would pivot to shore. Aside from bending our rudder shaft we would risk fracturing the rudder tube in the hull.

With the tide going down we are now “comfortably” aground. First time in days that we aren't bouncing around. Just have the waves slapping against the hull. I get on the VHF radio and call over to Chub Cay Marina, but they never respond. It is way too rough for any boats to come over from Chub from the south to help and the northern route is too shallow. Only locals around high tide would consider that route. Another boat in the marina “Green Turtle” later responds and offers to see if he can track down help. With the tide further dropping we shut down the engine, before the cooling water intake is out of the water. We are fortunately upright because we landed on a flat rocky bottom with our big flat lead wing keel. 

 

At least it is nice and calm, now

We now go to our third anchor our big Danforth which has never been out of the anchor locker in the 7 years we have owned this boat. We take some spare lines and Linda's idea to use the dingy anchor chain and we set that anchor off our stern to prepare for the next high tide. That anchor sets very well. Not much else we can do for now. 

Linda calmly sits on the stern, if she could see this view, she might contemplate divorce.

Unfortunately this side of Frasers Hog Cay is blocked from the cell tower a few miles away at Chub Cay. I can only send and receive text and email if I hold the cell phone up high. So I am contacting our insurance company and sending queries to marinas in Freeport and Nassau for a tow. I only get one positive response from Knowles Marina in Freeport. Two other marinas that do towing and repairs on Grand Bahama never even respond. There is nothing in Nassau for us. Freeport is a long way, but we now have a backup plan.

Good time to put on a new shaft zinc, hopefully we will get to use it.

As the tide recedes, further, the boat is very quiet. I hop in the dinghy with the camera and I see why, the hull is almost totally out of the water. An hour or two later I can step off the stern ladder and walk ashore. Now, the hull is completely out of the water. I notice that the shaft zinc I have been meaning to dive on and replace is now completely gone. Hmm, good opportunity to now easily replace it and I do.

I ride over to ”J-Dip” and thank Eric and Elizabeth for trying to come to our rescue. I am satisfied with my decision to decline their offer for help when they tell me they only have a 15HP diesel engine. Linda was not happy that I made that decision to wave them off.

We have dinner and wait for the rising tide. To distract ourselves until high tide we watch some TV shows in our “seaside condo”. As we approach high tide I check the tide tables and see tonight’s high tide is 4 inches lower than this mornings. And since full moon was just a couple days ago they are going to be getting lower each day. Our next best chance is tomorrow, the high tide is 1 inch lower than the previous morning. After that, high tide declines each day. Screw it, we go to bed. Without the boat rocking and being exhausted we sleep quite well.