We have been chaffing here, ready to go, but not quite completely ready… waiting for that ONE last thing… always that one last thing… and then one more…
It is really frustrating to have always ONE more thing. A common theme with people who are sailing away is that there is ALWAYS one more thing. Eventually you have to just pick a day and GO.
Well… we have finally made arrangements for that ONE last thing…
If the weather is supportive, tomorrow we are off in the evening for a morning arrival in the Bahamas. I am excited…
Of course, there is always a story to tell:
Tuesday morning we are quietly at anchor, minding our own business. A line of showers blows through, with a bit of breeze. Fifteen knots, maybe twenty for a minute or two. Nothing of any consequence–I thought. Karen is on deck on the phone. She suddenly alerts me that a boat is drifting across the harbor towards us. A large ketch we had noticed the day before while underway. We noted them as the kind of cruising boat we hope to never be, junk piled high on deck, looking just this side of derelict.
Here they come… anchor broken loose, drifting free, hatches open (remember, it has been raining!), generator running, but nobody home. In a few minutes they have drifted right up alongside us.
Fenders out, we tie them up alongside and call the Coast Guard on the radio. Fifteen minutes later, the local police boat responds, and manages to contact the owner who, eventually, shows up to reclaim his boat and move it back to anchor again on the other side of the harbor with an anchor rather unsuited to the size of the boat…
Anchoring is a combination of having good gear, and good technique. The boat we interacted with had neither. When anchored around other boats you have to also be aware of how those other boats are anchored. They can be the most dangerous things around.
fetchinketch 