Other People's Troubles

Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas
N 26 46.735 W 077 20.180

The sailing life is not all sunshine, beaches, and naps in the hammock. There are also moments of disaster and panic. Even though we haven't had any of those for several weeks, we have witnessed some. In the past 12 hours, we saw three such events that affected other people. Here are their stories.

[By the way, when I write about other people's troubles, I never identify them. It would not be nice for others to be embarrassed by things they may read about themselves in this blog.]

Yesterday, as we were rowing in to shore, a sailboat from New Bern was attempting to back in to a slip at the Green Turtle Club Marina nearby. There was zero wind and zero current and the slip was twice as wide as the boat, so there should have been no trouble. Not so. First, the captain lost control while backing, and got his boat crosswise to the slip. Then, as he realized the mistake, he put it in forward and gunned the engine to get himself out of there. Unfortunately, there was a dinghy
passing by at just that time, and the dinghy had to scramble to row fast to avoid being run down. Double unfortunate, it was Libby and I in that dinghy. Finally, he got it backed in to the slip, but when trying to get a line over the piling, the captain fell overboard. Not a good day for him.

This morning, just before dawn, a squall passed over and the wind blew pretty hard for a while. I got up to check that the anchor was holding (it was) and went back to bed. A few hours later, we learned that an Island Packet 40 sailboat nearby dragged their anchor in that squall and were blown up on to the rocks. According to a witness, it took them 90 minutes to get off the rocks and re-anchored. This morning, that boat hired a local diver to go down and inspect the damage to the propeller, keel
and hull. I haven't heard the result.

Later this morning, a cold front passed by. The sky turned black and the winds went from zero to 35 in a matter of seconds. Just before it arrived, I had just finished putting out a second anchor. I was still up on deck when I heard a boat horn warning HONK-HONK-HONK. I looked around. A catamaran nearby had dragged. It was drifting towards shore sideways at about 4 knots; not under control. I could see the captain running around in the cockpit. I expected him to start the engine and
get out of there, but he didn't.

Bang, it crashed up against some trees and pilings on the shore. I was just contemplating going in my dinghy to offer help when a man in a power boat came along. The man passed them a line, and pulled them away from shore. Then, the catamaran got it's own engine started and took control.

That wasn't the end of their trouble. I watched (and everyone else in the harbor watched) as they tried and failed to anchor 4 more times. (They only had 70 feet of anchor rode on board; not nearly enough.) The man (captain) and wife took turns hauling up the anchor after each failure. It would have been extremely strenuous work for anyone of any age, but for seniors like ourselves, it is very very hard to do. Add to that, doing it in the midst of a gale and drenching rain and it makes for
a really miserable morning. The poor couple then gave up anchoring and tried to pick up a private mooring. They couldn't even manage to do that. Finally, a man from another boat came by in his rubber dinghy and helped them to pick up a mooring line.

This story may have more episodes. Today's really strong cold front still hasn't reached us. It is supposed to pass late this afternoon.