March 26 – White Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Usually it is reassuring when ashore to look back over the harbor or anchorage and see Blue Wing with all of the other boats tethered to their anchors, pointing into the wind, swinging ever so gently back and forth in calm waters. Monday afternoon as we explored on land around the harbor at White Sound in Green Turtle Cay we gazed back across the water and did not have that reassuring feeling. The boats were not swaying in unison, but rather, pointing in different directions, especially those near Blue Wing.

Back on board the reason for this unharmonious swinging of the boats became apparent. We were in a whirlpool. Water rushing out of a shallow water anchorage adjacent to our anchorage was causing a circular current as it flowed into the channel leading out of White Sound.

Soon we noticed the stern of the large yawl, Te Amor, who had anchored next to us earlier in the day had been pushed to a right angle from our bow, maybe about 10 feet away. The captain of Te Amor, noticing the precariousness of the situation, tried to right his boat by slightly raising the mizzenmast. Te Amor swung back away from us and preceded to begin to sail out of the harbor right over her anchor. To our relief Te Amor’s captain finally raised anchor and move to the other side of us out of the current.

The next day was spent doing chores, corresponding with email and trying to post to the blog. Greg put out his fishing line off the back of the boat and did some laundry with water accumulated in the dinghy from the rain the night before. In the afternoon Greg went ashore to get a bag of ice. While he was out I heard his fishing reel start to spin. ’Oh no’, I thought, as I emerged from the cabin, ‘He has got a bite. and I have to deal with it when he is not here’. But once on deck I saw that he had not hooked a fish, but rather the dinghy with him in it. The line had wrapped around the prop and the engine had cut off. He was rowing with an oar and was trying to fight the current to get to back to Blue Wing, but the current was too strong and he was slowly being pulled through the channel into the sea of Abaco. There was nothing I could do.

An approaching dinghy came to the rescue and towed him to the boat. ‘Thank you’, I said, ‘I need him.’ The occupants of the dinghy ended up being our neighbors on Te Amor. They invited us over for drinks and lobster bisque.

Te Amor is crewed by a Canadian couple, Cam and Jan, who have been cruising the Bahamas every winter for 16 years. Joining us on their boat were Bruce, a retired engineer, cruisers Deb and Dick, both retired from the Canadian Coast Guard along with their friends who were visiting them on their boat, John (also formally of the Canadian Coast Guard) and John’s wife, whose name I don’t remember.

We had drinks topside, then, went below for more drinks and Jan’s lobster bisque made with lobsters she had caught earlier. After dinner Greg broke out his uke and played them John Prine, Kinks and original songs they had never heard. The Canadians in turn sang us some somber Canadian drinking songs we had never heard. Then everyone started singing Kingston Trio songs I had never heard.

I drank too much rum and spent two days recovering – but despite that it was a big time!