Entertainment Provided by Stolen Child
As I write this, it is 05:00 on Monday, 2/18. We are moored in Little Harbor and had quite an adventure getting in here, but more on that after I get the log current.
Thursday, Feb 14, we decided to head back to Hope Town for a couple of days. We have been sometimes too busy and sometimes too lazy to do laundry on the boat, so we had a good bit of laundry piled up and decided we'd much rather do it in Hope Town than in Marsh Harbor. The trip from Marsh Harbor to Hope Town is less than two hours and we needed to charge the batteries, so we just motored the whole way. We called ahead to reserve a mooring and there was a guy in a skiff waiting to show us which mooring was ours. The moorings are laid out in rows, so the harbor is kind of like a parking lot with rows of boats lined up. There was a boat that preceded us into the harbor and had turned down a row of boats prior to the row where our guide was leading us. The boats are quite close together and I was concentrating on not hitting the other boats already moored and following the guy in the skiff. All of a sudden, there is a sailboat appearing from behind the moored boat on my port bow (in front and to the left of me). He's moving from my left to my right and given our current speed and direction, we will both be attempting to occupy the exact same spot on the water at the exact same time. In other words, if one of us doesn't change course or speed very quickly, we're going to see which is sturdier, his beam or my bow. I already had the RPM's pretty low, so I didn't even bring it to idle, I just shifted the transmission from forward to reverse and gave it a hefty dose of throttle. I don't want to stop dead in the water for very long, though, because then the wind and current will drift me into the moored boats. I especially don't want to start moving backwards because many sailboats, and this one in particular, don't handle very well at all in reverse. Nancy and the guy in the skiff said the other boat never even looked our way and were probably blissfully oblivious of the whole thing. This all occurred in less than a minute and during the midst of it, I glanced to my right and there was a couple sitting on the foredeck of a moored boat watching the spectacle and their eyes were as wide as mine probably were. Anyway, I got Stolen Child stopped just long enough for the other boat to pass with probably 6 feet of clearance in front of our bow, and then underway again before we drifted into any moored boats. We got moored without any further drama. That evening we discussed and decided on our route back to Moss Point. We want to do our best to avoid all the bad weather and major shipping lanes we encountered on the way to the Bahamas.
Friday we took out the trash and did laundry at the laundromat behind the fuel dock at Lighthouse Marina. It was a beautiful day and we sat at a picnic table under the shade of a tree in a nice little garden area, reading while waiting for the laundry. We had a late lunch ashore and bought a few provisions in the afternoon and then got the boat ready to get underway the next morning.
Saturday morning we dropped our mooring and got to the fuel dock before they opened. We needed to top off our water and I decided to go ahead and fill the diesel tanks even though we haven't used much since filling up in Port Lucaya. We are heading down to Little Harbor and anchoring somewhere there as we plan to leave through the cut in the reef right next to Little Harbor. The wind is from the north and quite gusty, and expected to move more easterly overnight, so we decide to anchor on the west side of Lynard Cay, which is just a bit north of Little Harbor. We'll have a bare minimum of protection from the north and great protection from the east. There are already a couple of boats anchored there. We watched a movie that evening (Gangs of New York).
Sunday morning we slept late (until about 07:00), then sat around the cockpit reading until late morning when we dinghied ashore to the white sand beach we were anchored off of. The beach was very beautiful and we walked along it, picking up a few seashells. We also found a footpath to the Atlantic side of the cay and watched the waves crash on the rocks. We dinghied back to the boat and went swimming for a while, then showers, lunch and more reading. Our plan was to head out the cut the next morning and sail down to Chub Cay on the eastern edge of the Great Bahama Bank, then cross the bank westward to Cat Cay, then across the Gulf Stream. We heard on the weather that there is a cold front heading our way that will bring unfavorable weather through Wednesday, so we decide to postpone departure until after it has passed. I'd really like to get inside Little Harbor but the entrance is so shallow I'm not sure if high tide will be enough for our nearly 6 foot draft. On our way to the beach, we stopped at one of the other boats anchored with us (Nina Belle) and talked to Nina and Jeeter. They are going into Little Harbor and offer to radio us with the depth as they go in. We pick up our anchor and head for Little Harbor about 40 minutes behind Nina Belle, timing our arrival for about 20 minutes before absolute high tide. Kelly and Tony, a young couple on another boat (Myrtice) anchored with us goes in with Nina Belle and once in, launch their dinghy and using Jeeter's handheld depth sounder, check the depth of the channel and radio us that we might bump the bottom, but we should be able to get in. We decide to go for it and enter the channel. Everything is going fine until we are even with the last pair of channel markers, when we come to a very solid stop. I try to motor on past, but the boat is not budging. Jeeter and his two daughters come over in their dinghy and and I pass them a line tied to our spinnaker halyard. The idea is that they will pull on the halyard, which is attached to the top of the mast, and heel the boat over enough to allow us to motor on through the channel. Kelly and Tony push against the bow with their dinghy while Jeeter pulls the halyard with his. Unfortunately, we're stuck pretty good and the wind is opposing Jeeter's efforts to get the boat heeled over. Another couple of dinghies come out to help. Don is a single-hander and he is going to race back and forth in his dinghy, throwing up as much of a wake as possible to help float us off. Andrew and Bekka on the catamaran Stray Cat, along with Clay, another single-hander, come aboard Stolen Child and we swing the boom out over the port beam and they all climb out on the boom to help heel the boat over. Then a local guy named Larry comes out in a skiff with a 60 horsepower outboard and we pass him a line tied to the bow, which he pulls on with his boat. Finally, reluctantly, grudgingly, Stolen Child begins moving again. After moving only a few yards we are in water 10 feet deep and we grab a mooring ball. We're moored safe and sound and have provided great entertainment for all of Little Harbor. The only commercial establishment in Little Harbor is Pete's Pub and we invite everyone who helped us to meet us there and the drinks are on us. We launch our dinghy and head for Pete's Pub to repay everyone's kindness. We met up with most everyone who helped at Pete's and had a very nice evening. A couple of the locals told us that just last week a charter boat had run over the last two channel markers and drug them out of position. If not for that, we might have just touched, but wouldn't have gotten stuck aground. Nancy ordered a hamburger that came with cole slaw and the Bahamian staple, peas and rice. The burger was very good, but the slaw was incredible. It had chopped walnuts and crushed pineapple in it. I could have eaten a whole mixing bowl of it, but Nancy would only let me have a couple of bites. When we got back to the boat we decided this was one of the most enjoyable days we've had yet.
We will probably stay here until Wednesday, or whenever the cold front has blown through, and then head for Chub Cay. We will have to time our departure very carefully and make sure we compensate for the two channel markers which are out of position. There is a full moon on the 21st, which will bring higher than normal tides and that will help.
Stay tuned for more Bahama drama from Stolen Child.
Patrick
Thursday, Feb 14, we decided to head back to Hope Town for a couple of days. We have been sometimes too busy and sometimes too lazy to do laundry on the boat, so we had a good bit of laundry piled up and decided we'd much rather do it in Hope Town than in Marsh Harbor. The trip from Marsh Harbor to Hope Town is less than two hours and we needed to charge the batteries, so we just motored the whole way. We called ahead to reserve a mooring and there was a guy in a skiff waiting to show us which mooring was ours. The moorings are laid out in rows, so the harbor is kind of like a parking lot with rows of boats lined up. There was a boat that preceded us into the harbor and had turned down a row of boats prior to the row where our guide was leading us. The boats are quite close together and I was concentrating on not hitting the other boats already moored and following the guy in the skiff. All of a sudden, there is a sailboat appearing from behind the moored boat on my port bow (in front and to the left of me). He's moving from my left to my right and given our current speed and direction, we will both be attempting to occupy the exact same spot on the water at the exact same time. In other words, if one of us doesn't change course or speed very quickly, we're going to see which is sturdier, his beam or my bow. I already had the RPM's pretty low, so I didn't even bring it to idle, I just shifted the transmission from forward to reverse and gave it a hefty dose of throttle. I don't want to stop dead in the water for very long, though, because then the wind and current will drift me into the moored boats. I especially don't want to start moving backwards because many sailboats, and this one in particular, don't handle very well at all in reverse. Nancy and the guy in the skiff said the other boat never even looked our way and were probably blissfully oblivious of the whole thing. This all occurred in less than a minute and during the midst of it, I glanced to my right and there was a couple sitting on the foredeck of a moored boat watching the spectacle and their eyes were as wide as mine probably were. Anyway, I got Stolen Child stopped just long enough for the other boat to pass with probably 6 feet of clearance in front of our bow, and then underway again before we drifted into any moored boats. We got moored without any further drama. That evening we discussed and decided on our route back to Moss Point. We want to do our best to avoid all the bad weather and major shipping lanes we encountered on the way to the Bahamas.
Friday we took out the trash and did laundry at the laundromat behind the fuel dock at Lighthouse Marina. It was a beautiful day and we sat at a picnic table under the shade of a tree in a nice little garden area, reading while waiting for the laundry. We had a late lunch ashore and bought a few provisions in the afternoon and then got the boat ready to get underway the next morning.
Saturday morning we dropped our mooring and got to the fuel dock before they opened. We needed to top off our water and I decided to go ahead and fill the diesel tanks even though we haven't used much since filling up in Port Lucaya. We are heading down to Little Harbor and anchoring somewhere there as we plan to leave through the cut in the reef right next to Little Harbor. The wind is from the north and quite gusty, and expected to move more easterly overnight, so we decide to anchor on the west side of Lynard Cay, which is just a bit north of Little Harbor. We'll have a bare minimum of protection from the north and great protection from the east. There are already a couple of boats anchored there. We watched a movie that evening (Gangs of New York).
Sunday morning we slept late (until about 07:00), then sat around the cockpit reading until late morning when we dinghied ashore to the white sand beach we were anchored off of. The beach was very beautiful and we walked along it, picking up a few seashells. We also found a footpath to the Atlantic side of the cay and watched the waves crash on the rocks. We dinghied back to the boat and went swimming for a while, then showers, lunch and more reading. Our plan was to head out the cut the next morning and sail down to Chub Cay on the eastern edge of the Great Bahama Bank, then cross the bank westward to Cat Cay, then across the Gulf Stream. We heard on the weather that there is a cold front heading our way that will bring unfavorable weather through Wednesday, so we decide to postpone departure until after it has passed. I'd really like to get inside Little Harbor but the entrance is so shallow I'm not sure if high tide will be enough for our nearly 6 foot draft. On our way to the beach, we stopped at one of the other boats anchored with us (Nina Belle) and talked to Nina and Jeeter. They are going into Little Harbor and offer to radio us with the depth as they go in. We pick up our anchor and head for Little Harbor about 40 minutes behind Nina Belle, timing our arrival for about 20 minutes before absolute high tide. Kelly and Tony, a young couple on another boat (Myrtice) anchored with us goes in with Nina Belle and once in, launch their dinghy and using Jeeter's handheld depth sounder, check the depth of the channel and radio us that we might bump the bottom, but we should be able to get in. We decide to go for it and enter the channel. Everything is going fine until we are even with the last pair of channel markers, when we come to a very solid stop. I try to motor on past, but the boat is not budging. Jeeter and his two daughters come over in their dinghy and and I pass them a line tied to our spinnaker halyard. The idea is that they will pull on the halyard, which is attached to the top of the mast, and heel the boat over enough to allow us to motor on through the channel. Kelly and Tony push against the bow with their dinghy while Jeeter pulls the halyard with his. Unfortunately, we're stuck pretty good and the wind is opposing Jeeter's efforts to get the boat heeled over. Another couple of dinghies come out to help. Don is a single-hander and he is going to race back and forth in his dinghy, throwing up as much of a wake as possible to help float us off. Andrew and Bekka on the catamaran Stray Cat, along with Clay, another single-hander, come aboard Stolen Child and we swing the boom out over the port beam and they all climb out on the boom to help heel the boat over. Then a local guy named Larry comes out in a skiff with a 60 horsepower outboard and we pass him a line tied to the bow, which he pulls on with his boat. Finally, reluctantly, grudgingly, Stolen Child begins moving again. After moving only a few yards we are in water 10 feet deep and we grab a mooring ball. We're moored safe and sound and have provided great entertainment for all of Little Harbor. The only commercial establishment in Little Harbor is Pete's Pub and we invite everyone who helped us to meet us there and the drinks are on us. We launch our dinghy and head for Pete's Pub to repay everyone's kindness. We met up with most everyone who helped at Pete's and had a very nice evening. A couple of the locals told us that just last week a charter boat had run over the last two channel markers and drug them out of position. If not for that, we might have just touched, but wouldn't have gotten stuck aground. Nancy ordered a hamburger that came with cole slaw and the Bahamian staple, peas and rice. The burger was very good, but the slaw was incredible. It had chopped walnuts and crushed pineapple in it. I could have eaten a whole mixing bowl of it, but Nancy would only let me have a couple of bites. When we got back to the boat we decided this was one of the most enjoyable days we've had yet.
We will probably stay here until Wednesday, or whenever the cold front has blown through, and then head for Chub Cay. We will have to time our departure very carefully and make sure we compensate for the two channel markers which are out of position. There is a full moon on the 21st, which will bring higher than normal tides and that will help.
Stay tuned for more Bahama drama from Stolen Child.
Patrick
posted by Patrick | 7:33 PM
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