On Saturday, Gary and I went to the produce market & then grocery shopping and ate lunch. Back in the dinghy motoring through the anchorage we were both saying, "I don’t see the boat". We thought that maybe another boat was in front of it from our angle. Suddenly we realized that our boat was not where we had anchored. I started looking around and saw a boat way out in the bay that looked like ours. Then I really stared at it and realized that it was our boat.

We headed out to our boat and realized someone was on it. Getting closer, we saw it was Gary from Mai Tai. We found out that our anchor line and the bridle line had snapped (or chaffed through). It turns out as the boat broke free it drifted within a few feet of Mai Tai & Gary saw it go past & that our dinghy was gone. He got on the radio & announced that our boat was floating free & if anyone knew where we were. Several folks immediately hopped in their dinghies for a rescue.

Through the combined efforts of cruisers on Bay Pelican, Mai Tai, Ngoma, Piece & Plenty and Wind Shepard they got a 2nd anchor out & set while using one engine to assist in that effort. Gary then stayed on the boat until we returned and helped us find the original anchor (with a short section of line & bridle attached) and then helped us get back that anchor.

During this, Evensong tried to find us on shore in Rodney Bay. We are so grateful to the efforts of these wonderful people who rescued our boat and Windy too. We were so glad that Windy let them all on the boat to save it, although most everyone had been on Inspiration previously so she had met them.

One of the amazing & rewarding aspects of this lifestyle is all the wonderful people we meet along the way. Folks who think nothing of hopping in their car (i.e., dinghy) and racing across an anchorage to help save a boat in distress. And when we thanked everyone, most just down-played it as something you do for your neighbor / friends.

So rather than drifting out of the bay with an unobstructed path all the way to Panama, all ended well. After all this, Deb (from Bay Pelican) said she had seen the wind clocking at a steady 30+ mph with gusts over 40 mph. And we learned to check our anchor rode more often too!