Week 8: A Week of Unexpected Events

We were joined in Marsh Harbour by our friends, Jan and Mark on April 16th. We have a long-standing friendship with them starting when our kids were young, when we spent many fun-filled hours camping, boating, and snorkeling together. Since they are also both retired now, they were free to join us for a longer time, so they flew down to the Bahamas and will sail back with us to Florida in three weeks or so. Although Steve and I haven’t fully explored the Abacos, we were anxious to check out a different part of the Bahamas, so we weighed anchor the day after their arrival and started heading southward towards the Exuma islands.

Satellite View of the Northern Exuma Islands 

Our path is shown in the map below, starting at Marsh Harbour, stopping in Spanish Wells and Current Cay in northern Eleuthera, and then travelling to Highbourne Cay in the northern Exuma Islands. The islands in the part of the Exumas that we will explore are (not visible) in the circled area in the bottom of the screen shot and also shown in the satellite view above.

Route from Marsh Harbor to  Northern Exumas

I've zoomed in on the circled area so the cays are visible. Even so, they are still so small that their names are not shown. 

Highbourne Cay to Black Point (circled portion in map above)

The wind was low the day of our departure, so we motored out to the Atlantic side of Man of War Cay and took the opportunity to snorkel the Atlantic side. I’m continually amazed at the immense variety of sea life and the brilliant hues on the coral reefs. On this day, I saw several different types of algae that I had never noticed below. One looked like lettuce (aptly named sea lettuce), one looked like a hanging vine, and one looked alike a back-yard shrub with sort of triangular leaves.

The next day we set sail for Spanish Wells at the north end of Eleuthera and put lines in the water to troll for dolphin (the fish variety – not mammal – also known as Mahi Mahi). Today was our lucky day, and Mark landed a beautiful one!! We estimate it was a 15 or 20 pounder, and that one fish provided four meals for four people!

Starry Night's First Dolphin, Compliments of Mark

We didn’t explore the town of Spanish Wells the next day, but did find a gorgeous, small island which looked great for some time in a hammock and so decided to spend the morning relaxing there before heading to our next destination.

Hammock Haven

Off to Explore

View from "Hammock Island"

While Steve was setting up the hammock, Jan and I set off to explore the bluffs at the other end of the island. As I was picking my way across the rocks and looking for the perfect vistas for photos, Jan shouted and pointed to the bay in front of us. There I saw three heads bobbing in the water, and one unattended boat doing donuts at a very high rate of speed. Not good!

Runaway Boat

I stayed where I was to keep my eye on the occupants of the boat who had been ejected, while Jan went back to tell Steve and Mark what had happened. Thankfully, the displaced boaters could swim well and by the time Steve came back with our dinghy, they were safely ashore.

Now the problem at hand was stopping the boat. The boat was the tender from a nearby sailboat, and one of the crew who had still been aboard the sailboat, had seen what happened and made his way over by kayak to check on the passengers. Once he knew they were safe, he paddled over to where Steve was and the two of them discussed potential solutions. The boat, we learned, was a 15-foot Boston Whaler with a 50 horsepower motor and a full tank of gas. Letting the boat run out of gas was one of options but would probably take all day. Another option for stopping a motor is getting a rope wrapped around the propeller. I know this from personal experience… LOL. Steve and the kayaker went back to the mother ship and got a wide diameter rope to do the job.

Mother-Ship for Runaway

By now, the boat had slowed down a little bit, but was still going strong. It had also stopped going in circles and started going back and forth in s-curve fashion, which I thought was odd. I’m guessing it was a strange combination of wind and current that caused that behavior.

One thing that was heartening to see while I watched this drama unfold, was that every boat in the vicinity stopped by to make sure everyone was ok and to see if they could help.

The first attempts at “catching” the propeller were unsuccessful; the wake of the boat pushed the rope away. Steve tried pushing the rope with the wake of our dinghy, but our 10 HP motor’s wake wasn’t strong enough. Luckily a larger boat stopped by soon, offering assistance, and his wake did the trick!

So much for a relaxing day in the hammock! It makes for a more interesting story, though :-)

By then, it was time to head back to Starry Night and set off for our next stop on the way to the Exumas. We had decided to take a short hop from Spanish Wells to an anchorage at Current Cay so that we could complete our next day’s journey during daylight hours. We arrived just in time to take Jake to shore for his afternoon walk, so Jan, Jake, and I hopped aboard the dinghy, while Steve and Mark prepared dinner.

As Jan, Jake and I approached shore, we were “greeted” by five barking dogs, each which weighed at least 80 pounds. The dogs looked healthy but weren’t wearing collars, so we waited a few minutes to see if someone was there with the dogs. Alas, no one appeared, and we were afraid that my old guy, Jake, would be at risk amidst this barking pack. We started to go to another part of the island but there was a contiguous band of shallow rocks between us and the shore, and the wind and waves were starting to whip up. Jake was not pleased, but sometimes that’s how it goes.

Run-away boats, menacing packs of dogs…I assured Jan and Mark that these things are highly unusual. As it happened, though, there was more "unusual" in store.

The night before, Jan had asked (as most people do), whether we worry about pirates. We said that we don't, and explained that we’ve not heard of any pirates here in the Bahamas, although there are some places further south, such as Venezuela, that our insurance company will not cover us due to pirate risk. 

That evening, just as we were sitting down for dinner at our isolated anchorage, a run-down fishing boat carrying five men approached our boat. Jan’s first thought was “Pirates!”. To be fair, the one standing at the front of the boat was actually wearing a doo-rag, pirate style. LOL  Pretty sure that they weren't pirates, I went to the stern so that I could speak to them. 

About that time one of the men called out, “Good evening! Sorry to interrupt your dinner. We’ve been fishing all day and are about to run out of gas. Could you give us some gas to get home?”.

Another Rescue

We had enough gas to spare, so we handed them our 5 gallon can and told them they could have half. While they were pouring the gas into their tank, they offered us some of their catch of the day, snapper, in return. They took less gas than we offered and went on their way. 

We topped off the day with a gusty night and strong current, and loud squeaking that we were unable to find even though we each took a turn trying to pin down the source. Jan and I met each other at midnight on deck, each of us unable to sleep and still searching.

The next morning, during our pre-sail engine check, Steve found the source of the noise in the engine bay: a loose connection on the rudder. He tightened the connection, and voila! Blessed silence.

We spent the rest of the day sailing/motor sailing to Highbourne Cay, which is at the northern end of the Exuma islands. 

Approaching the Exuma Islands, there are numerous coral heads. Thankfully, they are easy to spot in the crystal clear water and therefore easy to avoid.

Coral Heads Abound in this Part of the Bahamas

Coral Heads as Seen from Starry Night

We arrived at Highbourne Cay just in time for dinner, and all decided to turn in early since none of us had slept well the night before. At 11:30 pm, Steve and I were startled from deep sleep by someone knocking very loudly on Starry Night’s hull, right next to our heads. This was quite frightening for me, and it was my turn to think: “Pirates?!?”

Steve jumped up, quickly dressed and found a man in his dinghy, speaking in broken English and telling us that Starry Night was sitting over its anchor, that it was too close to his boat and that we needed to start the motors and move our boat backwards.

Steve said he would check it out and the guy drove away, apparently waking up other boaters because he was afraid that they were also too close. Steve confirmed that our anchor was still in front of us, as it should be, but also found that the wind had shifted ninety degrees (and all the boats in the anchorage with it) and due to the differences in how much anchor chain we and the neighbor had each put out, we were indeed closer than we had been earlier in the day. He checked our distance with our range finder, and we were still a safe distance away. The man came back, Steve explained the situation, and we tried – unsuccessfully – to go back to sleep.

The next morning, we chuckled as a large motor yacht passed in front of us, at a safe distance, and we heard the same neighbor yelling on his loudspeaker: “CLEAR AWAY! CLEAR AWAY!” I hope he considers purchasing his own range finder, as it is very hard to judge how far away other boats are without one. Ours has eased our comfort level considerably.  Otherwise, I think it’s going to be a long “World Exploration” (his boat’s name) for him.

Thankfully, the day offered beautiful weather for snorkeling, and our run unusual events ended. Jan, Mark, Steve and I began our exploration of some of the Exuma islands.

Stay tuned!