Oh what a night!!

Where to start – okay so we were anchored in the south east end of the bight at Cat Island and had to move to the north end for the changing weather (winds changing from south east to north east). We decided to make this move after our restaurant lunch on Saturday. We took our dinghy to shore at noon only to find out that the Bahamian Prime Minister was making a surprise visit to the resort so the restaurant was closed. We were very happy for the little resort to have such a special visitor but no lunch for us!! We headed back to the boat, had lunch and moved up to the New Bight anchorage a little head of schedule. This is when things started to fall apart.

The wind had already picked up and changed directions. It was now coming from the south west and plowing straight into the New Bight anchorage – big waves bouncing everyone around! Many boats from our south spot had already moved up, joining the boats that were already anchored so it made finding a good spot to anchor a little more challenging. It is important to drop your anchor into the wind and because the wind was coming from the south west, we had to anchor with our bow facing out and our stern facing the beach. That’s not the usual way to anchor and it’s definitely more difficult. Most times you anchor with boats in front or beside you facing the shore (more or less). This time we had to turn away from shore, move out in front of the other boats and try to judge the distance from our stern to the other boats (while keeping in mind you have to drop anchor, let out 75 – 100ft of chain and then back down on it!). Oh and I forgot to mention that earlier in the morning, our plotter stopped working! Mark managed to get most of it up and running before we headed to New Bight except for the depth sounder (tricky to anchor when you don’t know how deep the water is!!). Time to trust the maps for water depth!

We found a great spot – close enough in to be sheltered and no boat directly behind us. We got into position and lower our (so far) amazing new manson anchor and the darn thing wouldn’t grab!! We were bouncing so much and being blown back so fast that the manson anchor just couldn’t dig in. We tried 5 times – changed locations 3 times and finally decided to change anchors. Our next best anchor is a Fortress danforth style anchor. It was on the bow until we bought the manson in November. The fortress was taken apart and stored under the floor in the main cabin. So while I manned the helm and kept us from dragging too far backwards (into the shallow water), Mark reassembled the anchor and attached it to our secondary anchor line which is 30ft of chain and then rope (this line is attached to the second anchor on our bow which is a cqr anchor – it’s not a great anchor but it’s the only one that fits on the bow with the fortress or the manson).

Once the new anchor was in position (basically just sitting on deck at the bow), the manson had to be retrieved (it was still in the water doing a crappy job!!). So we motored forward, brought in the manson and then Mark literally lifted the fortress onto the cap rail and pushed it off the side of the bow (there was no space for it up there). A big splash and the line started paying out. First attempt – success!! We were finally anchored way off to the side away from all the other boats (just in case). By this time it was close to dinner – we were tired but happy!

The expected wind change (from south west to north east) happened overnight which meant our anchor had to reset itself as the boat turned (something this fortress has failed at in the past). So at about 4 am our anchor alarm went off (we can set an alarm to tell us if the boat has moved from its original spot – very handy alarm). With the wind direction change the anchor dislodged and couldn’t reset – we were dragging about 1ft/second out into the bay. At least we were moving away from all the other boats and into deeper water! So we started the engine, motored up to the anchor and started to bring the rope line back on deck. This was quite the challenge – it was dark, windy and the anchor line was not on our windlass (the device that winds in our chain and anchor). Mark had to pull the rope by hand until he got to the chain portion. At that point Mark could use the windlass to get the anchor up. We had to drop the anchor twice before we got it to hold again!! By this time it was 5 am and we were both exhausted!! The good news is that the fortress anchor held all day yesterday and is still good today!!

Tomorrow morning we will be sailing out of New Bight (with a sigh of relief) and heading back to the Exumas. The wind is predicted to be from the south east so we should have a great sail back across the Sound. We’re heading to Rudder Cut Cay where we’ll stay for a few days to explore the area! Here’s hoping for an easy sail and a successful anchoring!!!