Anchor Drag in Hard Bargain, Bahamas, and Off to Eleuthera

Anchored in Hard Bargain before the storm.

Dave went snorkeling most everyday.

Hard Bargain does not have a great anchorage, and Dave dove down in the water the previous day to ensure that our anchor was dug in sand.  A storm was coming, and we had put out 80-feet of chain anchor rode in the 6-feet of water.  Not that it mattered, but we did happen to be right off the local cemetery, where a few of the graves, all full length, were likely from a sea disaster.

I set the the anchor alarm to go off if the boat moved more than 60 feet from its present location.  The anchor alarm will also track the boat location.  Typically, it would show a slight u-shaped curve as the boat moves around the set anchor from the wind.  So, a 60 foot movement is not unexpected, particularly if the wind shifts as it was supposed to going from southwest to northwest. I do not mind waking up to check the anchor to guard against it dragging.

This screen shot shows two of the anchor drags.
The green circle reflects 60 feet around the 3rd set.

I slept well until the 3:45 am when my iPad screamed “Anchor Alarm, Anchor Alarm!”  I immediate rose and found that our anchor had dragged over 30 feet, and Salty Paws was moving ever closer to the shore.  We were now in 5 feet of water.  The anchor dragged because the now 35-mph wind shifted direction and had twisted the anchor out of one of the few sand spots in the hard marl ocean bottom.  I immediately started our main engine and put the throttle in slow forward to relieve the pressure on the anchor.

It was 4 am, and the dim light of dawn was still more than 2 hours away.  Rather than raise the anchor in the darkness and move the boat out from the partially protected lee of the point, I was hoping that the anchor would reset on its own.  Every 10 minutes or so, I put the motor back in neutral, only to have the anchor drag again and force me to put the throttle back in forward.  Each time we got a little closer to shore, and now we were in 4 feet of water.  Three more times I repeated the process, and finally the anchor held.  Dave started the coffee, and we waited for dawn.  It finally came, and the worst was over.

The channel on the right is the northern entrance to the Bight
of Abaco.  Measured depths at low tide are as low as 1.2 meters.

Hard Bargain is on Moore’s Island, the only populated island in the Bight of Abaco.  This body of water is roughly a 50-mile circle between Grand Bahama Island and Great Abaco Island, and most always avoided by cruisers because of its shallow 3–4-foot northern entrance.  As always, I am attracted to places that are off the beaten track and had brought school supplies to donate to the local school as we had done on earlier visits to three other Bahamian towns.  

Dave and I presented the supplies to the
three primary school teachers.

The 3 tubs of school supplies.

The school principal told me that the name Moore's Island is from the name of it's first settler.  As there are no written records, it is spelled as many ways - Moore's, More's and Morr's, with and without the apostrophe or the "s."  The town's name of Hard Bargain is thought to reflect the folklore that residents were know for driving hard bargains in bartering with other fishing communities.

The fishing boats in Hard Bargain are anchored off the beach.

The population of Hard Bargain is, perhaps, 500.  The houses are simple, but sturdy.  There is a medical building, an all-grades school, and two restaurants where the menus are just word of mouth.  The primary industry is fishing for conch and lobsters.  The local fishermen each own their own open cockpit boats while they collectively own an old 100-foot shrimp dragger.  This is the mother ship will tow up to 20 of the open cockpit boats to fishing grounds often 100 miles away.  They might be away for up to a week at a time.  Each fisherman receives his share based upon his own catch.  Everything is frozen, and will eventually be boated to Nassau for sale.

I met Randy, whose boat Blade washed up on the beach from
the storm.  It presented a good time for him, however, to do
some engine maintenance.  He would use pipes to slide the
boat off the beach at the next high tide.

Bahamian lobster traps are simpler than
those in the North Atlantic.  The lobsters
are attracted by the fish bait, climb up
to the top of the trap and fall into a chute 

I was very interested in the design of sea wall being built along the Hard Bargain shore.  Similarly to what I want to do in Maine on one side of our house, it is designed to stop the speed of the tidal surge, but not to stop the flooding.

A few days earlier, Dave replaced Molly for the 115-mile Gulf crossing form Riviera Beach to Little Grand Cay.  While we found the crossing fine at our 15-mph speed, Molly was more comfortable spending a week visiting our granddaughter and helping her other grandmother pack for a move.  The pictures below document our travels that took us 150 miles southeast, ending up in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera. 

Depths went from 4,000 feet to 15
feet as we reached the Bahamian
Bank.  Love the color of the water!

We went through Customs in the Bahamian village of Little Grand Cay.

The electricity on Little Grand Cay was out so they couldn’t pump gas.  We detoured 6 miles northwest to the fancy marina at Walker’s Cay.  The island is owned by Carl Allen, one of the heirs of the Walmart fortune.  It was essentially empty.

While heading southwest we stopped at one of my favorite anchorages, Sand Cay between the two Double-Breasted Cays.

I was a little late in taking a picture of the stingray swimming by David.

Hitting the ball for Tory at Sand Cay.

After leaving Hard Bargain we finished going through the Bight of Abaco
and passed by Gorda Cay, aka Castaway Cay, aka Disney Island.
The yellow dot is a kite flyer being pulled by a speedboat. 

Tory watched the sunset at Little Cave Cay,
hoping for one more trip ashore.

The Disney cruise ship on Disney Island.  We observed 100s
of people on the islands two beaches.

After passing Disney Island, we anchored off Sandy Point, where we planned to spend the night.  As sea conditions were improving, however, we decided to proceed the 50-mile crossing to Eleuthera, rather than wait until tomorrow.

Our first Eleuthera anchorage was well-known Egg Island, but we soon
proceeded to Meeks Patch, aka pig island.  Tory was very concerned when
Dave jumped from the boat in order to see and feed the pigs.  She even
got to the bow of Salty Paws on her own, a first!  See below.

Dave and I left Tory unhappy in the v-berth while we explored South Meeks Patch and picked a place for snorkeling.

The forecast for the next several days includes high seas and 20-30 knot winds.  We were
pleased to find the one remaining dock space in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera.

We looked forward to an ice cream cone in Spanish Wells, but decided not to compete with
the golf carts already waiting in line.

We took a short ferry ride to North Eleuthera for our 7-mile roundtrip hike to Preacher's Cave and the Sapphire Blue Hole.

Neither Dave nor I were much interested
in jumping in.

The Bahamas has roughly 100 blue holes, often 100s of feet deep, but the
Sapphire Blue Hole is one of the few on land.

Dave and Tory in front of Preacher's Cave.

English settlers were shipwrecked on a reef on the Devil's Backbone.  They
found the nearby cave that provided much needed shelter.  It was thought to
be a gift from heaven in answer to their prayers.

We went to the beach near the Preacher's Cave and looked out on to the Devil's Backbone that Molly and I had navigated two years ago when we went to Harbor Island and spent a week with daughter Liz and family.

Dave has been a great mate.  He is an experienced boater, and also a game player.  We alternated between Ghost, Oh Hell and cribbage.  He flies out today (Sunday, March 24th), and Molly will rejoin me later this afternoon.  We will be slowly heading back to the States provided that she is entirely comfortable with the seas and winds!