Alive on Andros Island

Waltzing Matilda is handling this part of the adventure quite well, Mattie is enjoying it and I am happy to be out of sight of the Miami lights. I am thrilled to be in the Bahamas.

After our Gulf Stream crossing we landed in Bimini exhausted from being underway for more than 24 hours. Matilda clogged a fuel filter 4 miles off the Bimini harbor channel but I got it fixed and rafted up to Gnar Krust an hour after they landed. We cleared in at customs, returned to our boats and hoisted hook bound for Gun Cay. We found a nice anchorage in the lee of Gun Cay and dropped hook, went swimming and snorkeling, I went to bed before the sun set.

I awoke about midnight and the wind had shifted 90 degrees, we were taking a little bit of wind but pretty big swells hitting on the beam, I let out more anchor scope and dropped my big #55 anchor, I wrote in my log that “I am not dragging into the rocks my first night here”. I got a few hours of rolling and banging that might be called sleep but as soon as I had gray light I got ready to split, I looked out to see if Gnar Krust was awake and they were gone! I popped my head out of the companionway and looked around spotting Gnar Krust about 300 yards offshore on anchor. I got underway and got on the radio, they had dragged overnight and slammed the coral razor rocks shearing off their rudder at the waterline, they used the outboard engine to motor off the rocks and dropped hook to wait for me to wake up. I suggested we run 1.5 miles to a marina and take shelter at the jetty to have breakfast and get a plan.

After breakfast the GK Capitan came aboard Matilda and we went back to Gun Cay to trey and find the piece of rudder that broke off, it wasn't till we were standing on the ricks that we realized how dangerous the situation had been, it's hard to see danger in the dark. After a few minuets of searching we found the rudder piece and took it back to the jetty wall. We rafted Matilda and Gnar Krust together and using material left over from my rudder build last summer we were able to fix the broken rudder and get underway.
We crossed Elbow Bank in NNE 15kt winds that clocked to the East and increased to 20kt, we coulnd't hold the course that we neeeded to make the North West side of Andros Island and wanted to get far from civilization and camp on a beach so we let the wind push us to the South East. We stopped at dawn 8miles off shore in 10' of water, dropped hooks and slept till noon, then turned NE and found creek that made it deep enough for us to get within kayak distance of shore. Mattie was thrilled to be ashore and we had a campfire and sat on a beach, no lights and no people in sight.

After a day of rest we continued North, Waltzing Matilda left at first light, Gnar Krust is 3 times my speed so I left early allowing them to catch up. There was no wind, I made 8 miles in 10 hours and spotted an island I wanted to spend the night at, I radioed my Lat and Long to Gnar Krust and they informed me that there was a town right where I was called Red Bay. Gnar Krust motored to the bay and took a hook closer to shore, I took Mattie to the island and had a nice evening walking along the beach of a wonderful uninhabited key with pine, palm and mangroves, sponges washed up on red sand beaches and a wonderful sunset.

The Capitan of Gnar Krust went to shore to do some reconnaissance and meet some locals, the next day the four of us from both boats went to shore and spent a day hanging around in the village, buying out all the beer in the little “convenience” store. The locals were really cool and the village reminded me of some of the poorer neighborhoods in Pueblo, like Dog Patch and the West Side.

We took a local on board with us as a guide and headed north, we wanted to find away through a bank to avoid having to sail all the way around it, one of the guys came along assuring us “Ya mon, I know de way true”. We departed Red Bay at high tide and spent the night laying on our sides in 1' of water, stuck in de mud. Our guide knew that there was a way through, he just wasn't so hot at keeping to the channel. Gnar Krust made it through and Waltzing Matilda got stuck in the falling tide, when Gnar Krust came back to pull me out they got stuck. So we made dinner and went to bed. At 02:00 the tide lifted us off and we ran the last mile to the North West Channel.
The next morning I left at sun up and Gnar Krust followed an hour later, I had just crossed into the Tongue of the Ocean basin when Gnar Krust called me on the radio and told me to warn them if I got down to 4', I looked at my depth gauge and watched it go 40, 55, 90, 200, 515, blink, blink, blink. I radioed back that I only had about 600' under the keel and the water had turned purple again.

We sailed until we lost wind, then 4 miles from Morgan's Bluff we began to motor sail in, Gnar Krust ran out of gas and I passed them 1/3 of a gallon that I keep on board for back-up cooking fuel, just as we made the anchorage they ran out of fuel again, I pulled along side and we rafted up while I dropped a hook. We cooked up the barracuda that our guide caught, gave him half of the fish and $20, plus I gave him a small bag with soaps, fish hooks and first aid stuff. We took him to shore and his cousins were at the local watering hole and was able to get a ride home, half the island is his cousin. I'd really like to gdt some goats to these folks, the environment is perfect for them and the people's diet is mostly chicken, fish, wild boar and conch. They use dogs to hunt the wild boar then pen them up and fatten them before butchering them.

We are headed to the Exumas next, not going near Nassau, no need to go to a big city where we will get robbed (or worse) when there are plenty of beautiful cays to visit. We've only met a few cruisers since we landed at Morgan's Bluff, we have been traveling just the two little boats so far.

There will not be much contact from me while in the Exhumas, there is not much civilization there, but lots of fish and conch to eat.

(Post Script Gnar Krust is a 27' Balboa sloop that is buddy boating with Waltzing Matilda)