Sometimes it is a good idea to “dive” on your anchor (it is actually snorkeling and looking at it from the surface) and get a good look at how well it is “dug in”. Since we had to set our anchor 3 times before it held in this anchorage, and given the predicted stormy weather, I felt like that would be a good idea. I was pretty tired of messing with the anchor and wanted to do this last check and then forget about the anchor for a while. Meaning I was in a hurry to get in the water, get a look and get back on the boat and relax. Plus it was almost dark.
I changed into a swim suit and got my snorkeling gear and was about to climb down into the water from the side of the boat – note that our deck is 4 feet or so above the water so it is hard to gracefully move from the boat to the water without using the swim ladder. Our swim ladder is on the stern (back) of the boat, but we lift our dinghy up and suspend it above the water while under way and it was still tied and secured with a million straps and lines and I didn’t want to take the time to lower it down so I could get into the water easily.
At this point Mary Beth appeared from below as I was donning my mask and about to step over the life lines and flop into the water. Ever the doubter she asks “how are you going to get back up onto the boat?” I found that I did not have an answer to this question. I just wanted to be done with the stupid anchor.
She calmly proposed several possible improvements to my plan including lowering the dinghy to the water and using that to get myself into and out of the water. This was clearly the smart thing. Sensing my impatience to be done with the whole anchoring thing for the day she had the good judgement to not propose that I simply row the dinghy to where the anchor was and look at it from the dry comfort of the dinghy using a "look bucket" (a bucket with a clear plexiglass bottom that works like a giant snorkel mask).
Mary Beth, ever helpful, rigs a step and a loop of rope to the side of the boat so I can get into and out of the water. It worked ok to get into the water, although it wasn't my most graceful move.
Finally in the water, I do manage to get my flippers and mask on and start swimming toward the anchor. The wind had stirred up the water quite a bit and rather than the normal crystal clear Bahamian waters there was an ominous murky look to the water. As I swam against the current toward the anchor I began to notice some objects were flowing by me a few feet below the surface. There were hundreds of clear jelly thingies in the water. They ranged in size from golf ball to tennis ball size and they were everywhere. I didn’t feel any stings and didn’t see any tentacles hanging down so I swam on toward my distant goal- the anchor.
Not a "jelly", but a really beautiful needlefish. About a foot long and the same iridescent blue and green of the water so they are hard to spot.
I finally arrived at the anchor and got a good look at it. It was dug in pretty well, but it did have a bunch of grass and roots piled up on it too. This is not great, but probably ok. The risk is that when the wind shifts and the boat pulls from a different direction, the anchor may come unburied because the roots prevent it from turning and digging deeper into the sand.
After getting a good look I turned back toward the boat while trying to keep my distance from the icky jelly thingies, whatever they are.
I got back to the boat and suddenly realized how high the sides of our boat are. There was no way I could reach up and scramble aboard the boat. I tried to get a foot into the rope of the dangling step, but I only succeeded in getting blue bottom paint all over myself. Just to clarify, the bottom paint is special toxic paint on the boat hull below the water and its best to keep it off your skin and clothes. It is not supposed to be a decorative paint for people’s bottoms (and knees and shins and toes) although I did unintentionally use it for that in this case. It is best to not smudge it on the part of the boat above the water line as it is hard to get off and Mary Beth has made clear that was to be avoided at all costs.
I’m pretty tired by now since I have to reach up high from the water and hold onto the boat to avoid getting carried away in the current, so I call the captain to come help. She threw yet another line to me and then reminded me to make sure I didn’t get that bottom paint on the side of the boat or inside the boat. “Too late” I thought since I had been flopping against the hull as I dangled helplessly, but I did have the good sense to not say that out loud. By now I am really tired from hanging onto the boat and trying to climb aboard with the ropes. After refusing her suggestion to lower the dinghy so I could climb into that and get back aboard on the ladder I finally concede defeat, and she lowered the dinghy so I could flop into it, catch my breath and get back aboard the boat. I do hate it when my wife is right, although a rational person might note that I should be used to it by now.
My embarrassment was not over. She greeted me with soap, shampoo, a scrubby thing and a towel and told me to get cleaned up and get that paint off of myself before I even thought about coming back in the boat. It’s pretty embarrassing for a 61 year old man to have to get butt naked and sit on the floor of his boat’s cockpit scrubbing off toxic blue paint with a hose before he’s allowed back into his own boat.
What did I learn from my experience? I would like use the old cliché “anything worth doing is worth doing right”, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t learn anything.
This sailing thing is not all fun and games.
This has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was a cool picture. One night we anchored at Little San Salvadore/Half Moon Cay which is a privately owned island for the cruise ships. Cruise ships pull in for the day and there are all sorts of water sports, horseback riding trails, shopping etc. This is a fake pirateship and we took the picture as the sun was rising as we skeddaddled out of the anchorage before the cruise ships arrived for the day. Feels like the set of Pirates of the Caribbean!
Thanks for reading!
David