Day 266
April 2,
2016
NM Today: 8
NM Total:
4052
Time on route: 1 hour
Although the winds howled, Clark said we should move the
boat at least to another anchorage if not all the way to Nassau. Since it
looked like it would be rough going, we ate breakfast first and then left the
Chubb Channel anchorage just after 8:00. Our first waypoint took us to Diamond
Cay. From there our next stop would be Nassau. Clark did his best to “take the
waves on the forward quarter” to lessen the impact, but still I felt at times
like I was riding a bucking bronco. I planted my feet and gripped the rail by
my seat to hold myself in place all the while wondering if everything down
below was secured.
After one-half hour into our five hour trip, I asked Clark,
“Are you sure you want to deal with this for over four more hours?” We started
discussing options 1) continue on to Nassau 36 miles away, 2) go to a nearby
anchorage for a couple of hours and see if the winds settled down, or 3) go to
the nearby anchorage and plan on staying the night. We selected option 2 for
flexibility. Looking at the chart I saw that we would only venture a couple of
miles out of our way if we headed for the anchorage and then changed our minds
yet again to try for Nassau.
Fortunately Clark had thought ahead to the possibility that
we might need to divert to an anchorage, and we had setup the waypoints in the
chart plotter last night when we put in the waypoints for Nassau. We did not
have a route set, so we selected one waypoint at a time to take us to our new
destination – from Diamond Cay to Bird Cay and finally to Frazers Hog Cay.
We arrived at the channel entrance to Frazers Hog Cay just
before 9:00. We found the note on the
chart to be accurate that said the channel markers are no longer maintained.
They do not even exist! Clark could see where the channel should be as he could
see it on his chart plotter. We felt our way in to the anchorage with me as the
lookout to tell Clark if anything unusual, like shallow water or obstructions
should present themselves.
We had no issues coming in.
However, unlike the passage towards Nassau where we were heading into
the wind, here we traveled with the wind. It got hot fast without the cooling
breeze. The chart showed “moorings” just before the anchorage. We looked and
looked and finally saw it – one mooring ball. We passed it by and headed for
the anchorage. To anchor we turned the
boat into the wind – ahhhh once again we had a nice breeze albeit a rather
strong one!
Back in good ole Faro Blanco we spent a considerable amount
of time switching out our CQR plow anchor for the Danforth. We set the Danforth anchor and sat back to
relax and enjoy the day as we decided whether we would be staying for a couple
of hours or a couple of days. The wind
continued to howl, and Clark took his hand-held wind meter that was given to
him by his late Uncle Trowbridge and measured the wind speeds. He got wind
readings of 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 20 mph.
With the anchor set, it was time to assess the situation in
the boat cabin. Clark said a few minor things were out of place like the small
cooler had wandered over to the port side from starboard. The foldable bikes
are tied down during travel, but they always “take a little walk” across the
floor, so they had to be shoved over a bit. Everything else looked fine. Only
later did I notice that everything I store on the bench seat in the shower
stall (shampoo, soaps, etc) had taken a tumble. My only worry there was getting
the shower door open (it is hinged to open inwards). Fortunately nothing that
had fallen blocked the door so I could open it to clean up the items on the
floor.
Even with the strong wind gusts this anchorage proved to
have less “roll” than the one where we stayed last night. There the waves hit
us on the beam (side) and caused us to roll side-to-side all night long. With
the winds and waves hitting our bow in this anchorage, we had up-and-down
movement which is much less annoying. Clark had a few miscellaneous tasks he
was handling up top. I found ways to entertain myself down below.
Suddenly Clark came pounding down the stairs and stuck his
head in the cabin to tell me that he just got a call on the VHF radio from one
of the sailboats in the anchorage to tell us we were “dragging our anchor”.
Normally Clark sets an anchor alarm immediately after setting his anchor. I
guess it just didn’t happen today, and boy had we dragged our anchor. Clearly
neither one of us was paying close attention to our surroundings.
The force of the wind pushing on the bow of the boat had slowly
moved us closer and closer to shore. Thank goodness the sailboat owner called
us to “wake us up”. With Clark at the helm and me at the anchor, we pulled up
the anchor and set out to drop it again with hopes of better holding. We had
over 100 feet of line plus 25 feet of chain out, so we should have held with
that weight and “scope”.
We pulled it all in and then Clark repositioned the boat to
drop the anchor a second time. Once again we put out the same amount of chain
and line. As soon as Clark pulled on the line to check the holding, he could
tell the anchor was not holding at all. He went back to the helm to reel it all
back in again to try a third time. As I watched the anchor coming up, I knew we
had something on the anchor, and it would need to be cleared before it could be
redeployed.
I had Clark let the anchor sit in the water for a while
hoping that whatever was on the anchor (hopefully just some caked on sand)
would come off with hanging in the water for a while before pulling it the rest
of the way up. No such luck!! The anchor had uprooted some giant weed from the
bottom of the water, and I could find no way to disengage it from the anchor.
Finally I gave up and switched places with Clark so he could give it a try.
He shook the chain up and down and he poked at the anchor
with a boat pole. He raised the anchor and lowered the anchor repeatedly. I am
not sure how it finally got it dislodged because I did not have a clear view,
but finally the anchor was clear of plant life.
Now we had a decision to make. The chart indicated that the entire
anchorage has a weedy bottom. Clearly the Danforth could not be counted on for
this environment. We decided we needed to try the plow anchor. I remained at
the helm and Clark man-handled the anchor. He had asked me to “station keep” to
hold the boat in place while he worked up front cleaning the Danforth and then
preparing to drop the CQR. With the force of the winds, I had a devil of a time
trying to keep the boat anywhere near where I wanted it.
To complicate matters the anchor line for the CQR got itself
tangled into one heck of a mess, so while Clark wanted to focus on setting the
anchor, he ended up having to tie off the deployed line while he dealt with the
rest of the tangled line. I could tell
when the CQR took hold of the bottom because the boat suddenly lurched to a
stop even without the full complement of line deployed. Yay!
If Clark were a swearing man, I expect I would have heard a
few cuss words as he worked to undo that tangle. Eventually he managed to get
it sorted out and let out more line. Since it appeared we now had a solid
holding, Clark worked with the anchor line to setup a bridle for the boat to
swing on. It looked like a confused mess to me as I watched him from the upper
helm. For the longest time I could not begin to guess what he had in mind.
The excitement over, we went back to our previous activities
but this time with an anchor alarm set and one eye each on the scenery to check
periodically for dragging. After we completed our anchoring activities, several
more sailboats came into the anchorage and joined us. One of the later ones to
come in was our friends Bob and Maryann on Aftermath.
After he got settled, Bob came over to visit by dinghy to say hello and
talk about our travels since we last saw them on Thursday.
We ran the generator tonight since it was our second night
in an anchorage. The one-hour run from the old anchorage to this one was
insufficient in duration to charge the battery for another night at anchor.
Given that, I had electricity to use to cook dinner, so I pulled out my rice
maker, my wok, and my electric grill. I had some fresh vegetables that were in
jeopardy of becoming not so fresh, so we ate well.
With the cabin heated up from cooking, we took our steak,
rice and veggies up top and had a sunset dinner. The winds had settled down to
a cool breeze. Perfect way to end an eventful day!
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| Frazers Hog Cay at Sunset |
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