Good So Far
28 February 2012 | Pipe Cay
dd
The trip so far has been pretty normal, with the usual weather delays etc. etc. The big difference has been the addition of S/V Mega Yacht” being with us. Kyle and Josie are two young folks that have never been to the Bahamas, much less on their own boat.
Their boat is 76 Morgan 30 footer. It basically has nothing on board for life comforts. No fridge, they use a five gallon bucket for a head. No GPS, basically literally sailng by the seat of their pants. They ask us in Stuart if we minded them following us. And of course I said sure. They only had 1200 so how long could they possibly stay.
The trip started out down the ICW, due to weather, what’s new. The S/V Mega Yacht can only achieve about 2-3 knots under power, so against any current it is sometimes going backwards. But they manage very well with the only mishap being losing their anchor the third day out. Not a problem as Kyle has a backup.
After a few days we finally get a weather window out of Miami, so they leave at about 3:00 and we leave at 8:00. The crossing was a good one with moderate seas and a good sailing wind. We make it into Bimini Sands marina at about 1600. Kyle and Josie decide to anchor over in Alice Town. I warned them that this might not be the best decision, but he is the captain of his boat.
The next morning I get a call from him and he had not slept all night, due to another boat dragging past them just missing them. But all is well so far. We decide to stay another day as the wind is howling out of the North. The next day I get another call from Kyle, this time a tug pulling a dredge line has side swiped them naturally to his surprise didn’t even stop!!!!!!!! No real harm just cosmetic damage, he finally decides the 35. Dollars a night is worth a night’s sleep.
We finally get a bit of a break and head across the banks. This is a long trip of about 70 miles. Kyle had no GPS, and I had concerns about him trying to go through the NW passage into the Tongue of the Ocean on charts and compass alone. So I loaned him one of our gps so at least he could get a plot on where he was.
Crossing the banks usually requires a night at anchor somewhere in the middle. So we find a spot behind some shoals just after dark. Kyle is nowhere to be seen or heard. Finally I get a radio call and he thinks he is about ten miles behind us. Then calls back two hours later and says he thinks he is still ten miles out. I tell him where we are and said we will see him in the morning.
The next couple of days are pretty normal with a couple of days in Chubb Cay, then on to Nassau. Except that Kyle has discovered that their dingy is basically falling apart and leaking air and water, never a good thing!!!
The plan is to make it to Nassau and see if he can find a used dingy for a couple of hundred bucks. Well he finds an aluminum boat that is half full of water, but the Bahamian tells him it only has a couple of SMALL LEAKS. We tow the boat to the beach as we cannot bail the boat out with the COUPLE of leaks. We pull it up on shore and the bottom has holes everywhere. He thinks he can fiberglass the holes and it will be OK. Well after a couple of test floats and more fiberglass, the boat now only leaks a little bit. So that allows making it from Nassau to Allans Cay, which is where we are now.