{"id":2952,"date":"2014-04-10T16:35:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T16:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2014-04-10T16:35:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T16:35:21","slug":"another-day-in-georgetown-the-morning-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2952","title":{"rendered":"Another day in Georgetown, the morning after\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and it\u2019s the \u201cmorning after\u201d from yesterday\u2019s front.\u00a0 Actually, it\u2019s been pretty windy for several days with what Chris Parker, the weather router, calls \u201cpre-frontal\u201d winds.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as the \u201cactual\u201d front approached mid-day yesterday, we were anchored off of town, across the harbor, a location that was fairly protected when the pre-frontal winds were blowing from the south.\u00a0 As the front approached, the wind shifted, within just a few hours, from the south to the southwest, west, northwest and finally north.\u00a0 All this happened in pretty short order accompanied by winds that gusted into the 30kt range accompanied by squalls.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t particularly fun, actually.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, things got a bit bumpy and finally, (sort of) between squalls we decided to move over to the other side of the harbor to find a more sheltered spot.<\/p>\n

Pulling up the anchor, in a chop that was pushing 4 feet, was a bit challenging but we got it done with a minimum of problems.\u00a0 However, once we headed over to the other side of the harbor, anchoring in so much wind proved to be tough.<\/p>\n

As you may recall, some time back I damaged my Bruce anchor and had switched to a large Fortress anchor that I have had aboard for use in storm conditions.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t really used it much but it took the place of my damaged Bruce.<\/p>\n

I have to say that, after several weeks of use, I am not all that impressed with it as a primary anchor.\u00a0 When it sets, it sets hard and fast but so often I found that in weedy conditions it tended to skip along the bottom gathering up loads of weed and not really setting.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing quite as frustrating as trying to anchor in strong winds when the anchor won\u2019t hold.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In the interest of fairness, I have also had the same problem with my Bruce in the past.<\/p>\n

In the \u201canchor doesn\u2019t set\u201d department, yesterday was one of those days.\u00a0 We did quite a tour of the harbor, trying to drop the hook a total of five times and in several locations, until we finally found a good spot.\u00a0 The problem is that much of Georgetown harbor is moderately weedy and in strong winds anchors tend to load up with weed before they can set properly.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t as much of a problem when the winds are lighter as the anchor can dig through the weeds and into sand when there is less pressure on the anchor.\u00a0 That was not the case yesterday.\u00a0 Not at all.<\/p>\n

The Fortress is billed as a sort of \u201clast resort\u201d anchor and many boats carry one on board for storm conditions.\u00a0 With the exception of powerboats that rarely anchor anyway, you almost never see one used on a sailboat as a primary anchor.\u00a0 After a month of use, I can now see that the anchor has some limitations. The problem is that it\u2019s hinged and when it\u2019s deployed in very fine sand or mud, the hinge sometimes gets gummed up and won\u2019t move properly.\u00a0\u00a0 What this means is that it gets stuck, with the flukes in the \u201cup\u201d position, and just skips along the bottom not hooking at all. \u00a0\u00a0When I pulled up the anchor yesterday, I was shocked to see that one of the flukes and the shaft were slightly bent.\u00a0 Amazing for such a \u201ctough\u201d anchor.\u00a0 I have been told that there is a lifetime warrantee on Fortress anchors.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to test that when I get home in May.<\/p>\n

In order to find a replacement for my Bruce, I made an announcement on the radio net here in Georgetown and there\u2019s a guy with a spare CQR anchor that will fit Pandora nicely.\u00a0 The CQR is an old style design, but pretty good anchor and works well in most conditions. I plan on visiting that boat today or tomorrow to see if we can work something out.<\/p>\n

Anyway, yesterday was pretty rough as the front came through, and I hope that we won\u2019t have conditions like that again anytime soon. \u00a0\u00a0Some folks I was talking to this morning said that yesterday\u2019s frontal passage was the roughest they have ever seen in years of Bahamas cruising.<\/p>\n

However, today is a new day and what a beautiful one it is.\u00a0 The wind is still a bit brisk but the sun is out and shining brightly.\u00a0 And, we are now in a protected location off of a beautiful beach.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, when we finally anchored yesterday (Did I mention that we had some difficulty anchoring?) I noticed that our friends on Cat\u2019s Meow were anchored nearby.\u00a0 We met them last winter in the Bahamas and really enjoyed their company.\u00a0 Cat\u2019s Meow is a HUGE catamaran, 80\u2019 long.\u00a0 La Vonne and Don live aboard and travel up and down the east coast.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d love to have them visit us in Essex \u00a0but their mast is 102\u2019 tall and they can\u2019t fit under the I-95 CT highway bridge which is (only) about 90\u2019 tall.\u00a0 That\u2019s a very tall mast.\u00a0 Their boat is so wide, at 45\u2019, that there are only three boatyards on the entire east coast that can haul them out of the water.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s tough to shop for the best price when choice is that limited.\u00a0 Perhaps folks with 80\u2019 boats aren\u2019t that price sensitive.<\/p>\n

There is an interesting story behind Cat\u2019s Meow as they purchased the boat at auction from the DEA who had seized the boat from a drug dealer a while back.\u00a0 I wonder if the Coast Guard has them on a \u201cwatch list\u201d.<\/p>\n

What a boat.\u00a0 HUGE, doesn\u2019t begin to describe it.\u00a0 For a stove they have a 6 burner Wolf oven, the type you might find in a commercial kitchen.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite a stove.\u00a0 And, they have a \u201cbutler\u2019s pantry\u201d off of their cabin.\u00a0 Alas, no butler aboard.\u00a0 \u201cGet your own ice.\u201d\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Speaking of the Coast Guard, back in February, a sailboat from Canada had gone up on a reef off of Cuba and was in danger.\u00a0 Some local fishing boats helped get them off and the boat was repaired.\u00a0 As the hull was steel, the damage was minimal. However, in the process of trying to get help, they had contacted the US Coast Guard who, as you can imagine, declined to help them as they were in Cuban waters. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, fast forward a few months, to when they tried to clear customs in Florida and they ran into real difficulty as they had been put on a \u201clist\u201d as someone who had \u201ctraded with the enemy\u201d in Cuba.\u00a0 As a result, their boat was denied entry into the US and were told that they could continue up the coast to their home port in Canada but that they could no longer leave the boat in the US for the summer, as they have done for the last few years.<\/p>\n

I know that Americans are not allowed to visit Cuba but thought that it was OK for citizens from countries that do not have a trade embargo with them to visit and then come to the US.\u00a0 It seems that as they had decided to visit the US directly from Cuba, they were somehow in violation of American law.\u00a0 Oops\u2026<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know much about the finer points of the law but it seems that they are in a bit of a fix as to get just about anywhere south from Canada requires being able to stop in US waters.\u00a0 Perhaps if they had cleared into the Bahamas instead of going to the US directly from Cuba they might have been better off. Who knows. \u00a0Not a good situation to be in at all.\u00a0 It would be interesting to hear more.<\/p>\n

Brenda and I would love to visit Cuba but have no interest in running afoul of Customs in the US.\u00a0 Perhaps in time, we\u2019ll have an opportunity.\u00a0 (That\u2019s to visit Cuba, not to run afoul of US customs, just to be clear.)<\/p>\n

Now for a particularly jarring change of topic\u2026. There\u2019s a very \u201cinteresting\u201d boat anchored nearby. \u00a0Jumbo, and it\u2019s anything but\u2026 \u00a0If form follows function, I wonder what the function of Jumbo is. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, if Cat\u2019s Meow is huge than Jumbo isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Perhaps they should trade names.\u00a0 Jumbo looks more like a Tylenol capsule than a boat.\u00a0\u00a0 I hope Jumbo\u2018s owners don\u2019t see this post as I wouldn\u2019t want them to be offended.\u00a0 Jumbo is quite cute, actually.\u00a0 I wonder where their home port is.\u00a0 Probably not France, although it would be quite at home on a canal there but perhaps less at home on the open ocean getting there.\"\"<\/a>I have to say that yesterday was the nastiest day we\u2019ve had in our two winters in the Bahamas.\u00a0 However, today, the morning after, is a new day and what a beautiful day it is.\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s\u00a0 a shot of Pandora off of Monument Beach.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s named after the \u201cmonument\u201d on top of the hill which shows just to the right of Pandora.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ll take a walk up there later today.\"\"<\/a><\/span>I\u2019ll close with a picture we took last winter when our son\u2019s Rob and Chris, along with Rob\u2019s girlfriend Kandice, visited the monument with us.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Now that was a great day.\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and it\u2019s the \u201cmorning after\u201d from yesterday\u2019s front.\u00a0 Actually, it\u2019s been pretty windy for several days with what Chris Parker, the weather router, calls \u201cpre-frontal\u201d winds. However, as the \u201cactual\u201d front approached mid-day yesterday, we were anchored off of town, across the harbor, a location that was fairly protected when the pre-frontal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2957,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions\/2957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}