In Beautiful George Town, Bahamas. Lasting all week!
Mary Beth flew home to work with Erin and Jesse on wedding planning, so I took the opportunity to attend the local rock and roll festival. It started on Thursday March 3rd and continues through at least March 9th. Based on the enthusiasm that I’m seeing for the activities, I think it may go on even longer. It’s being held throughout the George Town harbor area, and I chose to take part at the Red Shanks venue. This area is just south of the town and I like it because it is a little less raucous than the other venues which are closer to town. However, I’m surprised at how wild it has been here. I’ve heard on the radio a lot of reports of dangerous behavior from the revelers in the other areas and even witnessed one such occurrence here. It seems there is a tradition for the boaters to do something called “dragging” when conditions fit the Rock and Roll theme (i.e. lots of wind).
While I’ve heard the term, “dragging” I thought it was dressing in women’s clothes for men and vice-versa for women. Turns out I was ignorant of how cruisers “do drag”, but I’ve learned that it always involves the anchor and boats in motion with their anchor still on the bottom. My first hint of this game was Friday when I started hearing boaters calling to other boaters in the other anchorages on the radio yelling things like “Endurance, Endurance (the boat’s name) you’re moving, you’re moving, are you aboard, you’re dragging”, followed by other boaters joining in on the radio giving a play by play including guessing which boats Endurance was headed for next. I think they may even have been betting money on where Endurance might end up. It sounded kind of like the old bumper car ride but with much larger, heavier and more expensive things. Finally I figured it out – dragging as in dragging their anchor along the bottom of the sea, which kind of defeats the purpose of the anchor which is to hold the boat in one spot.
I was still somewhat confused and couldn’t quite figure out the rules or the point of the game, but I hung on every word on the radio to try and learn it so I could play too. I wondered how the “movers” versus the “callers” were picked. It seemed quite random.
The most exciting part was when 3 or 4 boats become movers at the same time. This caused a whole new level in intensity in the radio chatter. Now other boaters were getting in their dinghies (small inflatable boats most cruisers use to go to shore and visit other boats) and they began chasing the movers down. This sounded absolutely thrilling! Listening I was enthralled, and I began to regret that I had picked this out-of-the-way place to anchor and couldn’t participate – being a chaser sounded like fun.
Then it even got better. When the chasers caught the moving boat they would climb aboard and attempt to stop it. No engine key is usually available so they must be creative in figuring out how to stop a boat weighing perhaps 20,000-30,000 lbs. I was guessing that if they were able to stop it before it collided with another vessel, they would get some kind of points whereas if the moving boat collided with another boat, the moving boat owner would be awarded points based on how much damage he was able to do. I pictured them with grappling hooks swinging from their dinghies onto the boat with ropes slung over their shoulders and knives in their teeth.
Through the radio talking and screaming, I heard: “Cloud Chaser, you are on the move, repeat you are on the move – you are dragging”. Cloud Chaser was the boat right in front of me!! Here was my chance to gain lasting glory in the sailing lore of George Town! I sprang on deck into the howling gale with my Cub Scout knife (it was all I had at hand) clamped firmly in my teeth and a coil of line in my hand. Wind at 40 knots tore at my clothes and blowing rain blinded me, but I was determined to play the game and to grab my share of the glory to be won in this high stakes game.
Alas, others were ahead of me, and my dinghy was too well secured for a quick launch. I could do nothing but stand on my dark pitching deck in the rain while others sought glory. Cloud Chaser drifted past me, and I nearly tried leaping from my deck to theirs, but my nerve failed me during the moment she passed when I might have swung over the water to their deck. I stood sadly in the shadows watching the spectacle play out almost within reach. The owners, who were still aboard in this case, ignoring the jeers and threatening pirate talk from the other boats, lost their nerve for the game and soon Cloud Chaser was back in her former place and anchored securely for the night. Glory, so close and yet so far away. Story of my life.