Friday, May 21, 2010: Hope Town to Marsh Harbor

We only picked up snippets of information regarding Gran Cru Thrusday night and Friday morning. Listening in on the VHS conversations, we could hear other members of the Fleet closer to the event offering to assist in what little way was possible; but Gran Cru declined. It wasn’t until we could talk with Kelly and the crew Saturday morning that we got the complete story. Tilloo Bank at the south end of Tilloo Cay, was the site of this debacle. It seems Grand Cru’s occupants selected this site to visit because of the reported plethora of shells rife for the taking on this sand spit. Apparently, it was true. Despite Cap’n Kelly’s repeated admonitions to re-board and depart for deeper waters before the tide went out, deaf ears were unhearing. Upon returning to the monohull, they discovered its keel was firmly aground, monohulls having a deeper keel and hence more susceptible to shallow water woes.
Timeline was something like this:
• Friday PM high tide was in early afternoon
• Discovering the problem was around 4 PM
• Next high tide was 2 AM Friday morning
• Options for the interim …… ZIP.

So what’s an enterprising crew to do? Nothing but make the best of the situation. As the tide went out, the boat became firmly aground as the tide receded (tides in this part of the world fluctuate 2 to 3 feet from high to low). ‘Not a lot unless you’re on a monohull in shallow water when the tile is going out. They dingeyed out to digitally document the increasing tilt of the boat. They cooked to the extent they could. ‘Ship tilt eventually disrupted the plumbing. Making the best of the situation, their patience prevailed, tides turned, the sea swelled and they were able to lift off the bottom around midnight.

Meanwhile, back at Crookshank, we had a leisurely breakfast following a good night’s sleep on level beds; a luxury deprived on the Grand Cru.
We departed Hope Town late morning for the last time. Sailing conditions were perfect. ‘Sunny skies, mid 80’s, brisk 15 – 20 knot winds. We enjoyed a couple hours of catching whatever favorable winds we were blessed with.

Our plan for the day was also to snorkel another reef, Mermaid Reef just east of Marsh Harbor. We located the reef on the GPS and made our way toward it. As we approached, we established our visual sighting. Our plan was to drop anchor well to the east of the reef, and then dingy in closer, as we had done at Fowl Cay. ‘Didn’t work out exactly that way. Did I mention that those 20 knot winds were blowing mostly out of the ENE? Well they were. We dropped anchor, checked our position and began confirming that we were firmly anchored. You do this by lining up two stationary objects a distance away from your boat and watch for a few minutes. If you’re firmly anchored, these two objects alignment do not change. If the boat’s not firmly anchored, alignments shift. …. They shifted. We were moving; not only that, we were moving (drifting) into Mermaid Reef. By the time we realized this, the reef was significantly, perilously closer. Several tense, anxious moments ensued as we struggled to raise the anchor using the powered windlass. Finally, aligning the Crookshank directly over the anchor allowed the windlass to do its job and hoist the anchor safely aboard in its housing on the foredeck, coincidentally allowing us to motor safely away from Mermaid Reef.

It’s time for an aside here. This is one I’ve blogged on before. These sails always produce these small mini-crises, without fail. The crises make for interesting stories …. but more interesting, I think, is the realization that it’s up to us, the crew, to address, assess and redress these problems. There’s not a lot of room for one to sit back and wait for the Calvary to charge in at the last moment. Tempests in a Teapot though they may be, they are very real for the moment, and they become quite the bonding experiences in retrospect. R. W. Emerson’s Self Reliance being lived in real time.

In late afternoon, we made our way back to Marsh Harbor, the sailing side of the trip coming to an end. We motored to dockside, so that the Moorings staff could refuel and berth Crookshank. No small feat in the continuing 20+ knot easterly winds.


Dinner tonight was ashore at one on the best Marsh Harbor restaurants, Wallys. Without prior reservations, we descended to the bottom of the guest list. The wait was worth it. We had a very nice Bahamian Grouper, Key Lime pie and other Bahamian cuisine. ‘Without a doubt, this was the best ashore dining we had during the trip. (‘Perhaps made more succulent by virtue of the fact that, at the end of the trip, we had a budget surplus, thus allowing most of the meal cost coming out of reimbursements from previously paid funds. Sweet! It was previously spent money being re-spent. What could be better?)

Thursday 5-20-10: Hope Town

Wednesday’s weather pattern prevailed today, offering little hope of good sailing winds. This port, promising many ashore charms and sights to see, lured us to stay. ‘We did. ‘Generally, but not specifically. You see, we developed one of the common, albeit rarely discussed, plagues of bareboat sailing ….. that being a fouled starboard toilet (this problem being ambidextrous, although). The solution to this issue, a common one with sailboats, is to sail out to open waters, far from any nation’s teeming shore, and then …… ahem ….. drop the load, so to speak. This was our plan, which we executed more or less accordingly. Minor hiccups ensued, but not worthy of immortalizing in this blog, unread thou it may be.
Freed of our restraining baggage, we made our way back to Hope Town to continue our explorations. Entering Hope Town Harbor, we secured Crookshank to a new mooring ball without incident.
Hopetown Lighthouse became our next sight to explore. We made our way there, and in small groups, hiked to the top, all 131 steps mastered at various paces. This is a magnificent Civil Engineering structure, completed in 1863. It's a masonry edifice, foundations unknown, but probably of massive stacked masonry. Unlike its cousin, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Hope Town suffered no debilating shoreline erosion, dictating a massive - in toto - relocation of this structure in 2003. (My company, MACTEC, was soils engineer-of-record for this award winning engineering effort, although I claim no part of the enterprise.)
While I marvel (get wrapped around the axle, some would say) about the construction of historic structures, far cooler, I find for lighthouses like this, are the optics. Using nothing more powerful than a kerosene-flame lamp, optics developed by a French engineer by the name of Fresnel, are able to project the kerosene-flame image out to sea some twenty miles(much to the chagrin of the Abacos salvagers.)
We made our way by dingy, courtesy of Cap’n Scott, to the other side of the harbor for lunch at Cap’n Jacks. ‘ not, great, … bugs swarmed with the fried food, but hunger and we, prevailed.
Thru the afternoon, we explored and shopped the island, highlighted by a stop at Vernon’s, famous for his Key Lime Pie. Yo & I found his pie somewhat lacking, although this apparently was a decidedly minority opinion. Key Lime Pie critics not-withstanding, Vernon, present, and on-the-hoof, was real and his sense of humor, pervasive. ‘In my opinion, our Key lime pie criticism was trumped by Vernon's humor.
Eventually, we made our way, in late afternoon, back to Crookshank. There, we heard, via VHS radio, that Gran Cru, Kelly’s boat, was aground at Tilloo Cay, listing at the time at about 15 degrees. Being too far away, we could only offer moral support …. and wait.