A friend commented that even though we have talked a lot about all the weather we saw the past few months, all the pictures showed sunny calm water. I flipped through our photos, and sure enough they all look pretty calm.
So here you go: the storm clouds building and the eerie calm before the storm in Green Turtle last week.
^^Then the squall.
Captured the first rains we saw in months in this pic. The far boat started dragging his anchor seconds after I took this photo so it was time to put the camera away. That one boat caused a lot of stress to all the others in the harbor. Even though this squally weather was very expected, the owners anchored in a grassy part of the harbor with little scope and upwind of several boats that had attained moorings in preparation of the winds. He had been approached earlier and given suggestions of where he could find better holding in the harbor but did not head them. Instead he got off his boat and went to shore for dinner even though we were expecting winds upward of 30 knots and thunderstorms to 40-60 knots. He, and the nearby boats, were lucky that when he dragged through the anchorage his boat did not hit another. We hailed him on VHF to let him know his boat was on the move but by the time he finally was able to dinghy out the anchor grabbed, thankfully before he hit the rocks behind us. The owner then went and re-anchored in the same exact bad spot with the same amount of insufficient scope played out. He then started to get in his dinghy to go back to his dinner. He got hailed on the radio by multiple other unhappy boat owners who firmly asked him to at least stay with his boat! For good reason too, as they anticipated he was on the move again a little while later. It is frustrating when you have done what you can to secure your own boat and another boat owner either carelessly/ignorantly/arrogantly/whatever-ly makes it all for not. Unfortunately we run into this scenario over and over. It is tiresome. It’s also why there are so few pics of the crap-o weather.
After this triple front system moved out of the way, we headed towards Double Breasted to wait for our friends on Nessa, Happy Healer, Anywhere and Raven. After a long afternoon of shimmying our way into the anchorage on an especially low tide we enjoyed it all to our selves….well, for a little while. About 7:00pm we see a charter boat heading into the anchorage. Not good for two reasons: “A”, charter boats approaching always command our attention (and evoke a sense of dread) and “B”, it was way too late in the day to be able to read the water depths and the current was still ripping. It was not a smart time for any boat to be trying to navigate around what we call “creepy corner”. Not surprisingly they ran aground. When they finally got off they came into the anchorage and anchored with only one anchor. Double Breasted is one of the very few anchorages where two anchors, in a Bahamian moor deployment, are required to keep you centered in the narrow channel during the tide switches. They were far from us and they did make it through the night without event. The next day, though, they learned why two anchors are strongly suggested. By then there were five boats in the anchorage and they were two boats away so we were not too concerned with them until we peeked out the hatch before going to bed and found that they had dragged down the channel and were now between us and the boat in front of us. Fortunately they ran aground before running into us. Keith got in the dinghy to see if they needed help to get off the beach and reanchored. They actually asked if he would come on the boat and just re-anchor the boat for them, they didn’t know what to do. “NO” When they got off the beach and did reanchor they chose a spot that is nearly dry at low water. Oh well. Probably safer for both them and us if they are sweetly and securely sitting on the sandbar. We were relieved to see them move along the next day (after they got them selves ungrounded-for the third time). People, you stress me out!!
Enough whining.
This is where we are right now and I don’t want to be anywhere but here! Double Breasted is a breathtakingly gorgeous little gem made up of nothing more of a few craggy rocks and spit of sand and shallow water in the middle of them. Our closest friends brought us here 16 years ago, it was their special spot. Over the years we have shared a lot of memories with a lot of different friends in this spot. Being here makes those memories more vivid, for that reason no other island can ever be as special. Prettier? maybe/maybe not. Better anchorage? Well, yes, there are better anchorages out there. But more special? No. We are quite happy to hang out here for the next few weeks.
^^The anchorage is in a narrow channel. One side is rock the other side is sandbar (out of view in the picture as it was high tide)
^^Those rocks look much closer after the sun goes down 😉
^^ My boys, just chilling on the beach
^^ Keith cleaning up a conch for us for dinner.
^^Just a little tiny spit of sand, but so perfectly so.
^^ The entire anchorage looks out to clear shallow water and sandbars that materialize as the tide falls. Little pockets of warm water pools settle in between the bars. Natures pretty playground. Yep, not in a hurry to head back to Florida just yet.
Oh, not sure if I made our plans known on the blog; here they are… We are hoping to hang out here with several friends for a while, then head to Florida for a few weeks for a much needed reprovision stop and to install the new water maker (so excited about that), from there it depends on the hurricane season. We may rent a mooring ball in George Town in one of the hurricane holes as a safety net and head back to the Exumas or, we may investigate getting clearances to Cuba or, might stick to the US until fall (not my first choice!). We aren’t sure yet. After hurricane season, if not before, we will head back to the Bahamas to see some of the places we didn’t get to see before heading on “down island”. At least that is the plan for today. Right now I’m not going to worry about it too much and go for a swim.
Wright Away Sails Away 