In the previous blog, I described our race experience as we swept the Georgetown Regatta and we were named boat of the year!
But truth be told our sailing was far from the most impressive boat handling I saw this past week. Our friends on S/V Jasaru had been changing anchorages in Elizabeth harbor when all of the sudden their transmission seized, engine temps went through the roof and they unexpectedly found themselves adrift without an engine!!! Justin and Sherry being well salted sailors were quick to act after a moment of shock, quickly getting there sails up. Now they had their 53′ Pearson cruising along, tacking left and right to make it up the tight channel and avoiding running aground!
They needed an anchorage they could sail to and quick, the first I hear of this is when they hailed Heritage on the radio,
“Heritage, Heritage, this is Jasaru.”
After I reply they answer,
“How’s that anchorage your in, room for one more?”
“I think so, a tight spot right near the entrance but should be room.” I reply unbeknownst about their plight.
“Ok, well, we lost our engine! Think we’re going to head in there under sail”
The calm in Justin’s voice is covering up a pretty gnarly scenario. Under sail trying to make it down a shallow narrow entrance to a nearly full anchorage.
Upon hearing this we’re out the door, handheld VHF in hand as I hop in the dingy, open up the throttle until we pull alongside Jasaru’s powder blue hull.
“Any way we can help?!”
“Think we’re good, I’ve got the channel lined up and as long as that boat doesn’t take the spot I’m eyeing I think we can make this happen,” Justin replies.
We throttle off again and politely ask the ahead boat to leave them room when they anchor. Holding down the anchor spot for them not much to do now but watch the show. Jasaru navigates the channel with Jib alone pulling them along downwind. At the end of the channel they will have to pull a 180, furl in the jib to stop their momentum, drop there anchor in the exact right spot and pray it holds so that they don’t get pushed into the rocks or another boat.
I wait with baited breath, they clear the channel and begin the turn, Justin leaves the wheel, let’s loose the jib sheet and quickly furls the flapping sail. He’s back to the wheel just in time to watch as Sherry drops the anchor. Aptly realizing they’re not moving back the right way, Justin rushes back to the mizzen sail, raising the aft most sail to straighten out the boat and drift right downwind.
They don’t have a moment to appreciate the sight as they are running around a mile a minute but from our vantage point I take it all in. The flawless sail handling, the boat responding to every move, the anchor dropping in a spot I couldn’t have picked better if I had all day. All that was left was for the anchor to hold tight, Sherry stops letting chain out, the anchor rode pulls tight and Jasaru comes to rest, beautifully anchored among all the boats! I let out a loud whoop and the relief is palpable on the faces as smiles replace intense concentration. It’s ten thirty in the morning but makes no difference, it’s time for a celebratory drink, we board with a bottle of Rum!
After drinking the worries away we set to task of finding out what went wrong. Hopes weren’t high but a couple of sweaty hours in the cramped engine room revealed about the best news possible. A transmission brake as useful as an appendix was the culprit and fortunately, rather cheap. Just a matter of getting it to their boat and seeing as they had a charter coming up in two days it was a rush job. Their guests were coming from Ft Lauderdale though and agreed to grab the part for them so all was well.
The next day was a beauty and Alyssa and I loaded up the dingy early. We spent the day exploring the back bays, finding low tide white sand beaches and looking for blue holes. We heard there were a couple worth diving into and we were scouting them out for an afternoon dive at low tide when the visibility is best and the current stops running.
Our directions lead us to a bubbling cauldron of water, even though we were miles from the ocean the tide was rushing up through the blue hole, traveling through the underground tunnels and finally emerging through this hole with enough force to ripple the surface on an otherwise calm day. We took note of the spot and planned to return when the tides were slack!
In the meantime we keep exploring, there are a couple more entrances to this underground system, nothing like the main attraction, instead they are cracks and crevices, some big enough to wiggle through, others just big enough to peer into and see if anything was peering back at you! One creature in particular was on my mind and Alyssa manned the dingy while I explored the cracks and crevices for a tasty lobster. Taking a big breath I’d dive the 5 ft to the ledges or entrances, that being the easy part. I’d grab hold of the rock or coral entrances and stick my head around every corner, hoping to happen up a hiding spot, when I found one then would begin the wiggling and wedging trying to get back into these tight underwater mines. Sometimes I’d just be able to get an arm in, other times I’d find a full cavern to pull myself into. Only 5-10 ft deep but the places I’d contort into bore careful attention, easy enough to get yourself stuck. Certainly not a sport for the claustrophobic but the rewards were worth it though, woohoo, dinner!!
With dinner on board and the tide running to slack we headed back to the big entrance. Ditched the lobster gear for scuba gear and the camera.
We drop down 15 ft to the turtle grass around the entrance, make sure both of our systems are working and head over to the entrance after getting the all good sign from Alyssa. The water drops away into a crescent moon cavern and we descend into the abyss, my eyes adjusting to the lower light, I see a 50 LB cubera snapper startled from its cave by our presence. Spade fish circle above, mutton snappers all around, a nurse shark peeks out from a cave, an 8 lb lobster hides under a ledge, this place is alive!! The amount of marine life that flocks to this spot is incredible, they must come for the ample security the caves afford along with the rich waters the tides bring in daily. We keep going down, we’re in 90 ft and lights is getting more sparse. The cave continues down to a bottleneck in 110′ where even at slack I can feel a slight current, wouldn’t want to be here when the tide was running full out. It gets tight at this point and it’s one cave even I don’t want to explore! Alyssa and I head back up to 60 ft where there are a myriad of different caverns and entrances to explore. This dive is amazing!
and on our way up we meet this guy, not sure what it is but instantly entranced, what an incredible world it is out here!!
The dive ends and we pack up our gear as we can’t stop rambling about what we just saw, we hightail it back to our boat unable to wipe the smiles from our faces as the sun basks us with its late afternoon warmth countering the chill of the saltwater dripping off us in the breeze that had picked up.
Pulling into the anchorage, we plan to stop by Jasaru to see how they are doing, but to our surprise their boat is gone… We unload onto Heritage, get the grill going for the lobster and give them a call on the radio to see where they are at, assuming they’d gotten the engine going to get out of the tight spot. We’re relieved when we hear their answer and they give us the whole story. Engine is not fixed, they figured they had a rare north wind and they used it to sail out of the anchorage! Some seriously rugged sailors those two are because that exit couldn’t of been easy, Sailing up to the anchor, executing a tight turn to avoid the rocks and building up the speed to have steerage down the tight channel, whew!!
Our lobsters are delicious and we sleep easy. The next day is not time for more fun though, the reason Jasaru left was that a big storm was on the way and they were going to be exposed at the mouth of the anchorage. We felt secure as we were tucked in but still felt a little nervous when all the other boats in the anchorage left, we tossed out another anchor and got the rest of the boat ready for the blow. Jasaru’s guest arrived that day as well so I was eager to help him out with installing the new part. When I called Justin to ask if I can help though I get the bad news, the shop gave this guests the wrong part to bring down, ouch. Rotten luck for them as now there stuck without an engine in case anything goes wrong in this storm and they are entertaining guests!
The storm waits till the next morning to hit but makes up for it’s late arrival with force. Before we know it the winds are hitting 40 its accompanied by spitting rain, thunder and lightening! The direction is right though, and our anchorage doesn’t have more than little ripples, our two anchors are holding strong keeping us off the shore a mere 50 yards away. Feeling safe we go to standard storm protocol, board games and baking. The chocolate chip muffins and banana bread are just starting to smell good when the radio starts buzzing with action,
“Hey, White Sloop, you know your dragging,”
“Yea, big trawler is loose too!”
People on the other side are struggling. The storm is picking up their anchors and setting them adrift, forced to start their motors and re-anchor in these nasty conditions or risk running into another boat or being tossed ashore.
“Blue hull Cutter Ketch your definitely dragging anchor,”
My ears perk up at this one just as the timer goes off for the muffins. Alyssa is taking them out as the call comes over the radio,
“Heritage, Heritage, this is Jasaru,” the calm confidence isn’t there in Justin’s voice this time.
“Go for Heritage,”
“Hey man, we are dragging like crazy, we’ve already covered two miles before I could deploy my back up anchor, we’re holding but don’t think it’ll last much longer! We’re about a 500 yards outside your anchorage if you can think of anything? Really don’t want to have to sail out of this gale and that shoreline is looking bigger by the minute”
The warm cabin and muffins offer a stark contrast to what’s out there but I know what I’ve got to do.
“I’m on my way.”
I don’t bother with a rain jacket and and just slip on my HECS wetsuit top instead, grab my mask and handheld VHF, pump up our (not so) trusty dingy and head out into the stinging rain. Lasts words I say to Alyssa are, “this isn’t going to be fun.”
I realize what I’m in for as soon as I try to add power and head into the wind, even in the calm waters of our anchorage, the wind picks up the nose of the dingy like a rag doll and is threatening to flip it before I back off the power and jump forward to the bow. “This is gonna be tough, I need a plan.” I think to myself. I map out the way in my head, working upwind best I can in the protected anchorage before I hit the big waves of the exposed bay. Hopefully I’ll spot Jasaru downwind and that’ll make an easy run…
“Your crazy man!!” Justin shouts as he comes out of the cockpit,
“Lovely day for a dingy ride,” I beam back, “at your service”
“If she (the anchor) pulls I gotta be here to sail the boat before we hit land,” Justin says getting down to the heart of the matter, “our anchors gotta be fouled with weeds, I just know it.”
“Well, why don’t I go take a look,” I reply grabbing my mask and fins.
I leave the dingy tied to their boat and hop in. Swimming to the bow the waves crash into my snorkel but I’m happy and in my element now. The water is warmer than the rain anyways. I trace their anchor chain from the bow until it disappears into the stirred up aqua waters. I take a dive and find the chain again, I grab onto it and pull myself hand over hand. This tactic lets me relax more and leads me down the chain another 200 ft until it disappears into the sand. Confused as to its disappearance I pull a Dory and “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”. 50 ft more and I come upon a clump of sand and turtle grass. I head up the 30 ft to the surface, grab a breath or two and head right back down. This dive confirms the anchor is in the clump, clogged and upside down it isn’t much help except as a deadweight. The weeds have to be cleared but as soon as I pick up the anchor or reach my hand in, the boat could tug on the anchor. Picturing this with my hand right by the anchor has me hearing the nickname “lefty” in my future, or worse, trapped underwater.
I swim to the back swimstep of Jasaru, leaving the underwater world for the wave crashing, wind whipping reality of a nasty storm. I tell Justin the situation and tell him I’m headed back to clear the mess, and to watch for me after every dive. He says good luck but with a look in his eyes that splits between thank you and your nuts.
I work my way back to the anchor, pick my angle, and remove the first scoop of fouled mess. The sand reduces visibility but everything holds steady, I dig deeper on the next grab and the anchor is starting to appear from the mess again. I grab one last scoop and head to the surface. Whew, catching my breath, think to myself, one more good dive and it’ll be free. I take a big breath, kick down and sight the anchor, I level off, stick my hand in to clear the last bit, the anchor is free but upside down, I plant my knees in the sand, pick it up, feel the weight of the boat and flip the anchor. I’ve just set down the anchor when it starts off. Whipping into the distance in no time flat, Jasaru is dragging! I’m picturing the panic as they realize their plight and try to get their sails up. Before I head for the surface, I follow the sand cloud in the direction the anchor dragged and to my delight I see a sand mound 30 ft away, as I approach I see the anchor firmly planted in the bottom, perfectly deployed, Woohoo!
I surface to the mayhem up top, swim to Jasaru and give Sherry and Justin my best chuck Norris thumbs up. I hop on board and laugh at the ridiculousness of this life and what just happened. I’ve got to get back to Alyssa and Heritage as its no certainty the storm isn’t doing the same thing with our anchors. So I don’t stay long, just enough time for Sherry to send me off with some fresh baked cookies before I’m into the dingy battling the waves again. I round the corner and see Heritage right where I left it with Alyssa in a rain Jacket looking worried on deck. I pull alongside and admit to her with an wily eyed smile, “I lied, that was a ton of fun!!”
Join us next time when we travel back to Long Island, where we reunite with friends before continuing on to the truly remote Crooked Islands
