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Part 3
We picked up our anchor and left Marathon around
5:00p, finally on our way to Nassau. Although this
is not the longest crossing we ever made, it was our
first time crossing the Gulf Stream, and I think we
both had some concerns. The fact that we had no
autopilot working meant we would have to hand steer
all the way. Although it was relatively calm, we
still experienced 3-5 foot swells. We did two hour
shifts and managed to make it through the night with
only a few freighters crossing our path. We did
have a problem with our running lights going out and
Captain Jim had to go to the very tip of the
bowsprit, hang over the rail, and install our
dinghy’s portable port and starboard lights (with
duck tape as a means to secure them. Good old duck
tape, don‘t leave port without it) so that we had
lights for the night time crossing.
When we hit the banks, we decided to continue to
Northwest Channel as the winds had picked up out of
the NW 10-15 and then 15-20. We continued to
motorsail with the Yankee up as that was the fastest
and we wanted to make the NW Channel by 5:00pm. On
the way we hit a nasty line of storms which gave
birth to several waterspouts. They were small, but
they are still tornadoes on water. We saw as many
as 4 at one time and one got within a couple hundred
yards before dying out. It raised some concern. It
seemed as if the squall line was moving at the same
speed we were and at one point we turned around to
try and get out of the weather but we could not try
that tactic too long as we wanted to be anchored at
NW Channel before dark.
Nilaya’s engine proved to be a problem for the whole
first half of our three month trip and this crossing
was no exception. Seas had built with the increased
wind and by the time we anchored (32 hours without
sleep), waves were running 4-6 feet. Once anchored
the boat was a bucking bronco to say the least.
However, the engine had started loosing RPM’s on the crossing and Jim needed to change the fuel filter. Down in
the bilge, in the rolling seas, he does the worst
possible thing; he drops the top of the fuel filter
holder. It lands in the depth of the bilge, just
out of reach. Jim needed to take the cabinet out
over the engine to find it. Fortunately God made it
fall where he could see it and eventually hook it
with a long wood doll with a bent metal rod taped to
the end. It took a long time to get everything back
in order with the boat being tossed around like a
rubber duck in a very big pond. By
8:00pm we finally had
dinner and went to bed to try and get a full night’s
sleep. Another feat to try in those seas.
We awoke to what sounded like a gunshot. Our anchor
rode had chafed through and we were adrift.
Anchoring in 4-6 foot seas means a wild pitching
bow. Jim quickly dropped another anchor, however it
did not hold; we tried again with the same results.
Three tries is a charm. Now anchored, Jim wants to
go in the water and try to find the lost anchor,
leaving Mary on the boat, alone, with a possible
dragging anchor and rain squalls all around that had
returned along with 25+ knots of wind. Needless to
say, the situation required some serious
“discussion.” The compromise was to ask Fred, on
Halycon, to launch his dingy (Fred’s was on davits
as opposed to ours which was lashed to the deck).
Unfortunately, in the rolling seas, Fred breaks an
oar lock and cannot row over. Jim by now has been
in the water with just mask and fins, searching for
the anchor. Exhausted, Jim tries to swim a line
over to Fred’s dingy. That failing, we launch our
dingy in those 25+ know winds with rolling seas.
After fighting with a dinghy that thought it was an
airplane, the dink finally hits the water and the
outboard gets attached. Jim goes to pick up Fred in
our dingy and begin the search to find the anchor.
Every time we anchor, Jim takes the GPS coordinates
just in case something like this were to happen.
Thus, after anchoring in the same spot as before,
Jim was able to find the anchor by having Fred tow
Jim behind the dinghy as he looked for the anchor &
rode. Finding it, Jim dives down, grabs the parted
anchor rode and attaches a buoy to it. In the
meantime, the dinghy motor dies and Fred cannot
start it. Fred is drifting away and Jim is
swimming away, while Mary and Jane watch all this
helplessly from their respective boats. Jim finally
is able to swim back to Nilaya, lift the second
anchor, and go after Fred in the drifting dingy.
Just as we get to Fred, who by this time had drifted
a couple of miles from our original location, Fred
discovers that the engine had run out of gas and was
refueling from the gas can. Mary had been in a
semi-panic state thru most of what had been going
on. She did not like being on board alone with a
questionable anchor holding Nilaya in bad conditions
and her captain swimming around in the heavy seas.
Thus Jim decided not to tell Mary of his next task.
Having gotten Fred and the dinghy back, we return
to the GPS coordinates, and Jim told Mary to “keep the boat within 150 feet of the
buoy marking the lost anchor“, then he went to the
bow, tied the end of the remaining 150 feet of
broken anchor rode around his waist and jumps over
the bowsprit into the water. He swims to the buoy
and attaches the line around his waist to the lost
anchor rode and swims back to Nilaya for a second
time. Once on board he ties off the first anchor
and the boat once again is secure, allowing a little
time to rest. Mary did a great job keeping the boat
within those 150 feet. If she had not done that,
the anchor would not have been retrieved and Jim may
have been seriously injured. Jim of course was
jubilant, he got the anchor and rode back. Mary,
however, was fit to kill, it was only her joy at
having Jim back on board that saved Jim’s life.
Eventually the equipment is hoisted back onboard and
we set off, 2 hours after that the whole episode
started, for the sail into
Nassau Harbor.
As we needed to make time, and the wind was still
howling, we motor sailed across the Tongue of the
Ocean with 4-8 foot following seas. We enter Nassau Harbor around 6:00pm, engine
sputtering because of the fuel filter once again
clogging. Luckily, we were able to get one of the
last slips available in the harbor at Hurricane Hole
Marina, land of the rich and very rich. Jim was
very persistent on the radio when he made the
reservation, “you are sure the slip will hold a 40
ft boat with a 12 foot bean and a draft of six
feet?“ Getting an affirmative we entered the
marina. Nilaya was the smallest boat in the marina
and from the bridge to
Paradise Island, looked like the
dinghy to the largest boat being 150 feet. We were
in a slip that would have held a 60 foot motor yacht
and next to a yacht of almost 100 feet. Once tied
up Jim said “I guess the slip is big enough”. Mary
would have paid any amount to spend a night securely
tied up to a dock, and pay we did. We both went to
bed that night wondering when this was going to
start being fun.  |
