Anchoring Our Way South in the Bahamas
After a very nice evening and night at anchor in Ten Bay, Eleuthera it was time for Janet and I to get prepared for some heavy winds. The predictions were for 4-5 days of East wind above 20kts. This was a daily occurrence when we crossed the Pacific. However, in the shallows of the Bahamas it makes for a big problem. Wave go up, but they also go down. Our keel doesn't have a lot of room under it... So... We tried to get the anchor to dig in deep at Ten Bay. How... with a good amount our chain out you back Tango up and pull on the anchor making it dig in. Except where the bottom is ROCK / CORAL cover with a thin layer of sand. We pulled and the chain acted like teh anchor was dragging. John hopped in the dinghy with a mask; nope it didn't work. The next attempt I watched the anchor as Janet pulled. Well that didn't work. Using the radio to tell Janet how to maneuver, we tried to get the anchor into a pocket of sand. It was kinda fun but a waste of time; 3 trys in two spots and no go. Ten Bay - light wind anchorage. So we moved to a close area called South Palmeto. It too was listed as a good anchorage. We tried twice there and no go, same slide across the shelf. Hummm.... Alabaste Bay is behind us and we know boat were anchored there. Governor's Harbor is south, lets look in there. We got the anchor up and ready for sea and motored for a bit into Governor's Harbor. There were about 10 boats anchored there. The bottom is known to be "mushy" with boats frequently dragging in big winds. Janet's first thought is that even if we do get the anchor set we'll be a target for all these boats dragging so off we go... Our best option seems to be Rock Harbor, further South. Its been recommended as a good anchorage, but, da da duh... its really shallow. As in 6-8 feet with our 7 foot draft. We contacted our Bahama's guru, who's been 100% spot on with recommendations. Rock Harbor is their favorite place and he says Tango will fit. So we actually put all sails up! You know the white things; we sailed and motor-sailed. Then we ever so slow motored into Rock Sound. Our Explorer Charts and Navionics charts accurately showed the depths, maybe I should say the charts showed the "Not Depths"... We got into the anchorage just fine with about 6" under the keel. The anchor dug in instantly and we tugged on it twice and it went deeper. PERFECTION! We are safely anchored and ready for the winds. After we drank our LAST New Zealand beers, we decided to dinghy (yup, that's a verb) into town and look around before the winds hit. We had a delicious conch salad (fresh and spicy), caprese salad and colorful tropical pain killing drinks at Wild Orchid restaurant, walked around a while and headed by to Tango for the night.
The weather is a bit better than expected, by this AM's forecast. Same winds but only for 2-3 days rather than 5 days. I'll get some photo loaded up soon in a new gallery folder.
The weather is a bit better than expected, by this AM's forecast. Same winds but only for 2-3 days rather than 5 days. I'll get some photo loaded up soon in a new gallery folder.
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