New Anchor Installed
05 February 2011 | Great Harbour Cay Marina, Berry Islands
Jill
This morning I was on the Internet again and saw that the tracking information showed our new anchor was delivered to Ft. Lauderdale yesterday. So the marina manager, Joe, called Tropic Air and found out it was sitting at customs. Joe sent Tyrone, one of the dock guys, to take us to the airport to retrieve our anchor. Joe assured us again that since it was a replacement part it would be duty free. I asked Tyrone if we'd need our cruising permit and passports, he said just passports for ID. I took the cruising permit also, thinking that might be needed to avoid paying duty, besides, it was in a bundle with the passports. When we got to the little airport (about a 5 minute drive) we had to go into a security office where a young woman sitting at a laptop pointed us to a gate and said, go through there. We did, and walked up to the only building, which had the customs office in it. No dogs allowed, so I sat outside with Fuzzy while Bud went in. After a couple of minutes he came out to say that he thought they were going to charge us duty. A few minutes after that, Bud came out with our mail and said they were going to charge us 10% duty and we needed cash. So Tyrone took us back to the marina. I went in and talked to Joe while Bud went down in the boat for cash. Joe called customs. As it turns out, since it's a replacement part we only had to pay 10%, instead of 45%!
So back to the airport, where Bud went back in to the little security office and was told to go back through the gate. A few minutes later Bud and the customs guy came out carrying our anchor. Tyrone helped them hoist it into the back of the jeep and off we went again.
Now Bud was worried that it wouldn't fit on the boat. I told him it was the size recommended for the boat and they're supposed to fit most bow rollers. The tide was still pretty high when we got back, so the bow of the boat was up as high as the dock, so we decided to try it right away. We took the old anchor off and put the new anchor and its new swivel on. I took up on the windlass while Bud guided the new anchor on board. It fit! Well almost. The curved bar at the top of the anchor was hitting our navigation light. And the hole in the anchor that looked like it was for the pin to secure it was nowhere near the pin on the bow roller.
So we took the light off and looked at how to remount that and I went to contact Rocna to find out about the pin. I never had to call Rocna, because on their website they had information on securing the anchor at the bow. Turns out the hole was NOT for a pin. They don't recommend using a pin because the flukes are so large that waves can push hard enough to bend a pin. Then you have to cut the pin to release the anchor. So they recommend lashing the anchor and securing the chain. They specifically say not to drill a new hole for a pin. Glad I checked!
We fiddled around a bit with the light and Bud came up with the idea to just add a couple of pieces of marine plastic wood (StarBoard) and remount the light a couple of inches above where it was using zip ties. The StarBoard is bolted to the old light bracket and serves as a backing for the light. One zip tie goes around the bottom of the lens and through the StarBoard; another goes around the top of the lens and around the front vertical piece of the bow pulpit. It works - thanks again for the good zip ties Bob & Donna! We figure this will get us through until we're ready to have some work done on the boat, and then we'll have the mount for the light redone.
So tomorrow we leave the marina again. We're only going a short ways to where our new friends Jim and Judy aboard Dream Weaver are. We'll anchor near them, then at high tide on Monday move the boat back to where we think it will be quite secure for some mild squalls due Monday night (top winds 30 to 35 knots). We certainly hope we can sleep well with this anchor deployed.
We're also on the lookout for Scott and Brittany aboard Rasmus. Their website said they were headed for the Berry Islands today. We were half expecting them to show up here. We hailed them several times on the VHF, but didn't get an answer, so they may have gone to the southern end of the chain. I'll check their website again tonight, and we'll keep hailing them on the radio as we go. I would love to see them again. We left them on October 29 in Catskill, on the Hudson!
Our next planned stop where we think we'll have Internet is Nassau. Don't know when that will be. We are hoping to spend a while at anchor now, so I really do think we'll be out of touch for a bit.