Tuesday February 1, 2011

I woke up this morning anchored at Guana Cay. When I went to bed, the anchor was set. Jim and Ellie from FinniIrish got their lookie bucket and checked the anchor. I was anchored in 8 feet of water and one fluke of the anchor was buried in sand. When I woke up in the morning, the anchor had dragged about 2 football fields and then reset itself. I was really lucky. While the anchor was dragging, I missed a rock and another boat. This was a terrible anchorage from the beginning. The wind was coming out of the east and so this was to be a protected anchorage. However, after dragging the anchor, I was in 14 feet of water and the waves were bouncing the WaterMark around a bit.

I made a pot of coffee and then noticed that the dingy was floating away from the boat. A wave had broken the painter connector from the dingy and the rope that secured the dingy to the boat was dangling in the water. I heard a pop, kind of like a rubber band breaking. When I looked back I saw the dingy floating away! My first panic reaction was to jump into the water and swim after it. I then heard cousin Andy saying put on your life jacket. So I put on the life jacket. Then I thought instead of jumping in the water, why not pull the anchor up and steer WaterMark toward the dingy. This seemed to be the better plan and so that is what I did. I weighed anchor and motored after the runaway dingy. I got the boat hook out and when I was close enough, I hooked the dingy and then tied it off on a stern cleat. I learned a lesson. Make sure that you have a back up line on the dingy at night. That way it will not be able to break loose from the boat and float away. I also learned that jumping in the water was a bad idea.

Once I had the dingy under control, Jim and Ellie told me to raft the WaterMark off of FinniIrish. I did. Jim then said that he had and extra 20 feet of chain and that I should add this extra length to my anchor. I disconnected the old short chain and connected the new chain. This new addition to my ground tackle should prevent WaterMark from dragging anchor.

We then jumped into Jim’s dingy and motored to Guana Cay. We wandered the streets, taking photographs and seeing the sights. There are two worthwhile establishments on the Cay. Grabber’s which is right by the dingy dock and Nippers. Jim and Ellie told us that Nippers was on the ocean side of the Cay. We hiked a short distance up a sand path. At the end of the path was the most brightly colored bar that I had ever seen. The fence was painted in pink, blue, yellow and green. I was very beautiful. There was a long descending stair case to the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Jim and Ellie, Lee and Janet my boating buddies walked the beach searching for sea shells. I walked the other way. I walked to the end of the sand beach before turning around to rejoin the group.

After a walk on the beach, we all ordered lunch. My favorite here in the Bahamas is the Conch Burger. It is fried conch served on a hamburger bun with tomato, lettuce and onion. My other favorite is conch chowder. Neither of these delicacies is available in Michigan.

After eating lunch, we hiked back to the dingy dock. Lee and Jim started talking with some other boaters that they know. I explored the property. The girls went into the water up to about their knees searching for sea biscuits. Ellie found one. Janet also found one. Ellie took the sea biscuit back to FinniIrish and soaked it in bleach. She said that once it is done soaking and all of the organic material is dissolved it is to be a present for Sandy.

We then jumped into the dingy and headed back to the boats.

At 2:45PM I headed the WaterMark toward March Harbor. Traveled 10.7 miles and anchored in Marsh Harbor at 5PM. Jim and Ellie were exhausted. I had to take the dingy and explore the new location. I circled the harbor. AT sunset, I had a drink with Lee and Janet on Passage. I then headed back to WaterMark and by 9PM was tucked in my bunk.