Drama on the Banks - our buddy boats save the day.

     February 17, 2015

             The docks at Old Bahama Bay Marina were empty by mid-day on Thursday12th February. That morning twenty-five boats of all shapes and sizes had left for the next leg of their trip over the Little Bahama Banks to Green Turtle Cay, and then onwards to the Sea of Abaco. Many of the sailboats had to wait for the tide to come up so that they could be assured of enough depth in the Indian Rock channel - the short cut which saves the extra three hours it would take to go through the deeper Memory Rock channel. Southern Vectis draws 5 feet, and the lowest water depth we saw was 6 feet 4 inches. We all made it, but held our breath in some places!
      Now we felt we could relax.  There was no wind to sail, and the weather forecast was good for our eight hour motoring trip to Great Sale Cay.  But is was not to be that easy. We had just reached Mangrove Cay - our half-way point - when our engine suddenly stopped dead! We looked at each other, and then looked out at our two buddy boats, `Camp David`and `Kris Deke`. It just took one call on our VHF radio and David and Deke were soon on board ``Southern Vectis` complete with tool boxes and fuel filters. They methodically went through the various scenarios causing the engine to fail, new fuel filters and new fuel appeared, and, after two false starts, we were off again! Phew!  Thank you, thank you, David & Deke.        
     Unfortunately the two hours taken to get the engine going, meant two hours less daylight. Now we would have to enter the Great Sale anchorage in the dark. Not something we relished. It was 8 p.m. when we nervously cruised through into what should have been a sheltered anchorage. We were confused, not only because it was pitch dark, but also because there was a strange person on the VHF radio giving us what seemed to be instructions about the direction we should be steering. (We never discovered who it was, and now think it could have been a modern-day version of a wrecker, luring us onto the rocks!) We ended up anchoring not too far inside the bay, in order to avoid the other boats but unfortunately we were not far enough in, and did not avoid the heavy swells that rocked us awake all night!
     The next day - Friday 13th - went more smoothly.  We motor-sailed most of the nine hours to Green Turtle Cay, and arrived in broad daylight at our dock at the lovely Green Turtle Club.  To move on from here,  we will have to wait for the weather to be calm enough for us to cross over the Whale - an inlet from the Atlantic, which can be wild in the wrong conditions.  We may have to wait for another week, but it will be no hardship!