I have decided that the cruisers anchorage in Nassau is the freakin worst place ever!
We have been having a rather terrible time at anchor here in Nassau. It is weird that it has such a strong current because it is open at both ends… but I guess that’s also why there is so much current. The bay is funneled. The winds have been from the east (the open side) of the east anchorage. We are east of the bridges, opposite the cruise ships. The winds have all been forecast to be rather light at around 6-10 knots, nothing to be concerned about.
BUT…. everyday we have been getting pummeled by storms, they bring with them rather strong winds.
ALSO… there are so many boat racing by causing big waves to smash into us and roll the boat. They do not slow down for anchored boats and often pass by within 50 feet.
Our anchors have been holding for 2 days… but not last night.
At like 11pm we had the anchor drag alarm go off…!!!!
All hands on deck we race up in our underwear to figure out what was going on. We got hit by another storm with winds almost up to 30 knots and the stern anchor dragged…. like 200 feet. We got so lucky it did not snag the chain of the Rockna anchor on its way past. A small miracle that by luck kept us safe, it could easily have turned out badly. You cannot turn your motor on if you have the stern anchor rhode under the back of the boat.
In the pouring rain the two of us, who were just climbing into bed, race up on deck to assess the situation. We figured out that we were actually holding well on the main Rockna anchor despite the 180 degree turn it had to make, it held.
WildChild has a semi enclosure, the side screens give us shade from the sun without force loading in the winds. However when there is pouring driving rain in strong winds we do get wet in the cockpit. The two of us soggy wet like sea rats together at the helm had to fix things and decide what to do next. (More hard decisions).
The thing was… the main anchor was holding great against the winds and the currents… AT THAT MOMENT. We saw peak winds at 30.2 knots just after this image above was snapped. We saw sustained winds around 27 knots but we were holding. That was the worst of the wind and we were still holding.. so no problem right…? WRONG…!
At 4am the current was going to shift 2 knots the other way. we would then swing back around our main anchor again. There are other boats here also on long scopes who will also swing. Several boats have dragged in the last 2 days and there were 2 swinging boat collisions out here. We are in the deeper water (25 feet in the middle) so to have a 7-1 scope we need 175 feet of chain out… but we cannot do that because we do not have swing room.
We had to add scope to our main chain AND redeploy the stern anchor…. in the dark… in the rain.. in the winds… in my underwear. It sounds like lots of fun…. I know you were just thinking last night that your night was too easy…. if only you could fight with an anchor in the rain… 🙂
So despite the misery the two of us joked around, kept each others moral up, worked like a team, and just got it done. By 12:30am we felt like we were safe again and went to bed…. Just as we were about to turn the lights out I saw that the red light indicator for the bilge pump went on… and did not turn off… Uh OH…
It either means there is so much water entering the boat right now that the bilge cannot keep up (very super bad)… or… the pump is not able to pump (also bad). Guess what I got to do next…. yep… stick my hands into the dirty greasy bilge water and solve the problem. The good news was we were not taking on water… that bad news was the back check valve was stuck in the closed position. Dirty work late night just before bed but I got it done too.
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This morning we got pummeled by yet another nasty thunder storm with strong winds on the nose while hanging off the stern anchor against the current. I didn’t get much sleep last night.
However…. an hour ago when I went up on deck to check things out, I discovered to my horror that the stern bridal harness somehow got itself wrapped around our rudder..! OH CRAP… how long have we been hanging off our rudder…? That is super bad…! That is not supposed to be able to happen, I have floats on the bridal harness to prevent it from ever getting under the boat. It seems they have filled with water and sunk. Somehow in the strong winds and currents the boat floated backwards over the stern anchor and wrapped the ropes around the rudder.
Guess what I go to do this morning in my underwear…? Yep… climb down the stern ladder halfway into the water and try to get us untangled with a boat hook and some creative releasing and tugging of ropes. The current was slack as I was working on this so the good news is that we were not hanging off the stern lines with much force. I was able to release them one by one and pull them around the rudder and re-secure them.
Didn’t YouTube sell you the idea that this cruising life is all glory…? All sunshine and tropical beaches… all good days and the easy life… everybody encourages me with words like “Lexi don’t give up… you are living the dream”. People on land living very comfortable lives dream of living my life… I have to say… I dream of living your life. I have had 1 actual hot shower with unlimited water in the last 3 months, I miss having a shower everyday. I miss feeling safe and secure. I don’t actually enjoy struggling in a storm in the dark in a crappy Nassau anchorage to save my home and my crew mate.
Wanna trade places….?
Cheers
Captain Lexi
….the tired soggy sea rat…