Cruising Memories #3

 Below are a few of New Horizon's adventures all wrapped up into one post, which completes my writings for now...

We couldn’t believe that we were actually back in the Bahamas. Our Gulf Stream Crossing was quite a bit rougher than expected, but we decided to keep on going even though the boat was rolling a lot. However, with the way the waves were hitting us, instead of riding the current north to West End as we had first intended, we felt it best to change our heading to Freeport. NOAA had predicted very light north winds, but once we were about 10 miles out of Ft. Lauderdale, we were experiencing 15-20 knots of wind with white caps on top of large swells. Dave took over the steering manually instead of using the autopilot, since he could anticipate the waves and adjust our course to make the ride a bit more comfortable. Along the way we ran into a problem where the sailing dinghy on the sundeck roof started moving back and forth with our rolling, despite being tied down. Here we were out in the middle of the ocean, and I had to bring our 46 foot trawler up into the wind so we could take these 6+ foot waves head on, while Dave climbed out onto the roof to put two more lines on, so it didn’t slide into the deep blue sea. I must say that I had the easier job. We both had our life jackets on at least. After about 30 miles we could tell that the pull of the Gulf Stream current going against the northerly wind was easing and the wave action was much more tolerable. The closer we got to Freeport, the calmer it was. I was the first to spot land, which was actually the radio/cell tower. It is amazing how quickly we forgot how rough our trip was once we realized we had made it!

We traveled on to Man O’War, where the local boat builders continue to make skiffs, as they have for centuries. They used to make them in wood, but most are now made in fiberglass, except for the sailing dinghies. After exploring the island we went in our Logic Riot dinghy out to Fowl Cay Preserve reef nearby, and hooked up to one of the moorings. Dave immediately dove in the water and found himself face to face with two 8 ft. reef sharks! They chased him (more like followed him) into the shallows of the reef, and wouldn’t ‘let’ him get back to the boat. Dave called out to me, telling me his predicament, although there wasn’t much I could do since the reef was so shallow. I certainly hope he didn’t expect me to get in the water and lure the sharks away! Finally the sharks’ attention were drawn elsewhere and Dave made a beeline for the dinghy. As we dropped the mooring line and headed out, one of the local dive boats packed full of snorkelers, grabbed the same mooring. Dave drove up to them and the captain ended up being Troy from Dive Guana, so he asked if the sharks were friendly. His reply was priceless, as were the looks on the snorkelers faces when Dave mentioned sharks. “Yes,” he said, “they only take LITTLE bites!” We laughed and when Troy also said the sharks were almost always there, I knew that they just looked menacing and were really being inquisitive. I bet the sharks had a good laugh too. We could picture them saying to each other, “Hey, let’s antagonize this guy and give him a good scare!” They certainly succeeded.

We were out in our dinghy passing some small uninhabited islands off of Treasure Cay when Dave yelled, “Wilson!” Startled, I looked up to see a basketball sitting all by itself on a rock ledge covered with sand. Naturally we couldn’t leave it there since Dave has always wanted to find a ‘friend’ like Tom Hanks had in the movie Castaway. It wasn’t a soccer ball, but a basketball is a close cousin. Being the devoted wife that I am, I jumped out of the boat onto the beach and climbed onto the rocks and retrieved it. That’s when I found out that we couldn’t name ‘him’ Wilson, because he was really Spaulding! When we got back to New Horizon, we made a perfect face for Spaulding, right down to his hair. Spaulding commanded the best seat on the boat looking out from my hanging plant on the sundeck, watching everyone staring back at him as they went by. 

We had Spaulding for a couple of years and then while exploring the northern Abaco Islands, found a perfect home for him on Powell Cay. Mixed in with the flotsam that had washed up on the beach, was the shell of an old television. We set up the TV in a party spot way above the high tide line, with Spaulding as the star of the show, sitting inside it. Since then we have actually seen him featured in different cruiser blogs, which makes us smile and brings back fond memories.

Next up will be back to the present time and more great events and hopefully a few good adventures!