Rose Island Anchorage – trip to Gilligan’s Island

Day 270

April 6, 2016

NM Today: 5

NM Total: 4101

The alarm went off at 6:25 again this morning, and Clark got up to listen to his 6:30 weather report on the shortwave radio. Once again I could hear the host of the show, Chris Parker, talking. I got up and shut the door to the master stateroom so I could continue to sleep.

One advantage of Clark being up early is his ability to take sunrise pictures as well as sunset pictures. He took several at 7:00 this morning.

Sunrise as seen from Rose Island Anchorage, Bahamas

Sunrise at Rose Island in the Bahamas

I came out of hiding at 8:30 with no specific plans for the day. Clark greeted me with a request for me to cook pancakes on my electric griddle for breakfast since he wanted to run the generator and needed to “put a load on it”. Also, we had agreed that the next time he ran the generator, I would defrost the fridge and freezer. It doesn’t require a generator to defrost it, but once defrosted, it takes quite a bit of power to get it back down to keep-cold temperatures. Clark did not want the fridge pulling from the battery to bring itself back to temp.

So, here I was, barely awake with one eye on the pancakes and the other on the fridge. The pancakes got the bulk of my attention, however, and at one point I heard a pop and then ice flew out of the fridge in multiple directions. I guess a considerably large piece let go and exploded when it hit bottom. Clark and I chased pieces of ice around the salon to clean it all up.

Clark helped me with the pancakes, i.e. he ate the ones I cooked, and then lent a hand with the defrost job by drying out the insides of the fridge and freezer to be sure we had a fresh start when I put the food back inside. That done, I thought I had completed my spontaneous chores when Clark reminded me that I had some sewing to do on my mini sewing machine. He suggested I do that as long as the generator was going so we wouldn’t have to run the inverter and drain the batteries to feed the sewing machine.

I dug out my sewing paraphernalia and machine out of the second stateroom, and then repaired the sheets I needed to mend. As I did so I congratulated myself on my skill at guessing what to bring on this Great Loop trip and how to reuse items that I have collected along the way. I had everything I needed to patch my sheets just using items I had brought from New Jersey back in June. The sewing machine, small as it is, is a wonderful addition to the boat. I am so glad I purchased it back in December. It has proven itself useful multiple times already.

Before coming to the Bahamas, I bought new sheets because the old ones were in pretty bad shape. Although the new ones feel soft, as advertised, they are not particularly great in humid conditions. I didn’t realize when I ordered them that they were “microfiber”. I don’t know what that means in terms of the material used to make them. I do know that I haven’t slept anywhere near as well since I switched over. I patched the old ones and will give them another try to see if they feel more comfortable than the new ones in the humid climate.

While I did my morning chores, Clark studied the weather every which way he could. Where yesterday the anchorage was mostly calm, today we found ourselves in rocky waters. After I finished my chores and he killed the generator, Clark continued to mull over the decision on whether we should try moving to the other side of Rose Island or stay here.

After much deliberation, he decided we should pull up anchor and move to see if conditions were any better on the other side. Besides the possibility of calmer water he said we could go see Gilligan’s Island. I didn’t truly feel like moving but I did want to see Gilligan’s Island. He knew just the right thing to say to motivate me. Anyway I figured that it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

We left our anchorage just after noon. The trip to the other side of Rose Island would take about an hour. I decided we could eat lunch after we got to our destination. Very quickly we got to the point where we could see Gilligan’s Island, and Clark took some pictures to capture the moment.

Island Used in Opening Scenes
for the TV Series Gilligan’s Island

Bob on Aftermath had told us that Gilligan’s Island had nothing to offer but some palm trees, and we could see he was right about that. What we saw in addition to Gilligan’s Island, however, left us less than enthusiastic about continuing our journey to the other side of Rose Island. Waves breaking! Lots and lots of waves breaking ahead of us where we needed to travel to get to the alternate anchorage.

Waves breaking
right where we needed to go to change anchorages!

 We pretty much simultaneously decided that our original anchorage would be preferable to trying to get to a new one, so Clark turned the boat 180 degrees and we headed back. The round trip took just over one hour though Clark made the remark that it seemed to take a lot less time to get to Gilligan’s Island than it did to come back. We slowed down on the return trip to minimize the salt water bath the boat was taking from the waves hitting the bow.

When we left the anchorage, we left two sailboats at anchor. I told Clark that they would be happy to see us when we returned because then they wouldn’t be so lonely without us. He didn’t believe me. No sooner did we enter the anchorage than we got a call on the VHF from the sailboat Sophie asking us about our outing. They wanted to know if the other side of the island would be preferable. Clark filled them in on our findings, and they decided they should just stay at this location. When selecting a new spot to drop anchor, Clark decided that we should tuck in closer to the shore for more protection. That worked for a long while, but at some point during the afternoon the rocking started back up again and continued to get more and more aggressive as the evening progressed.

As I sit here typing my blog entry Clark is staggering around the cabin like a drunken sailor being thrown to port then starboard. I told him he really needs to give up drinking. (BTW: He only drinks water.) He tried to pour a glass of water at dinner, and the boat rocked at just the right time to force him to pour water all over the table instead of into the glass.

My only regret is that I did not change the sheets on my bed mid-afternoon when the boat was on flat seas. Changing the boat sheets is somewhat comparable to wrestling a bear. That is on a good day. I will now have the pleasure of wrestling the bear on “high seas”. It will be all I can do not to fall flat on my face while I am doing it, but I am determined to switch back to my old sheets for tonight. I hope they turn out to be worth the effort.