I’m not sure it worked out that way. All of those boats I was overwhelmed by in George Town, well, they just reprovision there. Then they come back to the Chat n Chill to LIVE. The forecast winds made that a sensible move, but still...
Stocking Island - hand fed stingrays, conch salad made fresh to order, and plenty to keep us appreciating the scenery
We decided to start our day with a loop hike around the middle third of Stocking Island. As soon as we left the resorts on the western, Stocking Harbour side, we were suddenly the only ones around. The other side of the island, facing east towards the Atlantic, was gorgeous and only had about three people per mile enjoying the beach there with its dramatic turquoise crashing surf. Once we had built up a sufficient appetite, we headed back over the ridge and swam across the channel to the Chat n Chill. Maybe it was that last bit that kept the throngs at bay.
Exploring the ocean side of Stocking Island - very rewarding
The Chat n Chill is in reality 3% mediocre food, 7% pretty good drinks, and 90% hype. It is one of those places that has managed to get itself into all of the tourist brochures as a ‘must see’ stop, even if you have to hire a water taxi to get you there from George Town. We tried introducing ourselves to a few other cruisers, but as soon as it became apparent that we weren’t from their part of Florida, the conversation quickly fizzled. No worries. We had a nice bottle of Pinotage waiting for us at home and I had the best company on the island anyway. Best of all, Begonia was close enough to the Chat n Chill, anchored in the first row behind the beach, to be able to enjoy their soundtrack of distinctly tropical, beachy music without it being too loud to converse.
A busy night at anchor!
We had one more bit of drama before we left Volleyball Beach. A pretty strong blow was forecast from the northeast. This caused an even larger proportion of the boats on the less protected George Town side of Stocking Harbour to move to the protected Volleyball Beach side with us, under the lee of Stocking Island.
To prepare for this, we picked our way through the building crowd all the way to the beach, dropped our anchor there, and then dug it in using lots of power to make sure it would hold. Since the winds were still light out of the southwest when we did it, we appeared to be doing it all backwards, we got a few looks from the surrounding boats, especially the one we were stern-to-stern with as our engines were roaring away half a boat length back. Once we were satisfied that our anchor was well-buried and holding, I shut down the engines and the wind pushed us fifty meters away to the other side of our swinging circle, where our spacing with our neighbors was back to normal.
We were sleeping with the hatch open when the first drops of rain woke us and alerted us to the arriving front. I closed the hatch and then went out into the darkness to have a look. There was lots of lightning and I could hear the wind howling on the George Town side, although it was still calm where we were.
Then the drama started. Even though the frontal system was crossing over us from northeast to southwest, the individual convective cell over Great Exuma Island was blasting rain and wind over Stocking Harbour towards the northeast. Suddenly, the wind was blowing the complete opposite direction from the forecast and way harder. We recorded 37 knots. The hundreds of boats that we had so cleverly thought we would be safe from when the inevitable anchor dragging started were now directly upwind of us.
We got pretty lucky. Begonia held fast, our neighbors held fast, and our spacing with them was good. One big sportfishing boat that had anchored with short scope stern to the beach by Chat n Chill, with a second line run ashore, had their anchor pull out. They grounded sideways on the beach, but with stern thrusters plus their dinghy acting as a tug, they were able to get the big boat’s props into deep enough water to engage reverse. Even so, they seemed to be struggling to get away. Then a guy jumped in and waded ashore to untie the shore line. They looked like they were going to leave him there for a bit as they seemed to need both bow and stern thrusters, plus the propellers to stay off the beach, and the only place he could safely climb aboard was on the stern platform. Lucky for him, since the shore line retrieval seemed to be unplanned, their dinghy was not well secured. He was able to swim to that and then make his way back aboard the big boat. Then, with too much windage to turn around, they backed through the anchorage, going fast in the dark and rain, with no forward-facing spotlights. Yikes!
A couple of bays down, a catamaran dragged onto the beach. On the way, they got their anchor tangled with a monohull’s and they both ended up together. Both boats suffered no damage and were dragged off the beach by local powerboats a few hours later at high tide.
When the northeast blow finally did arrive, it was milder than expected. Once we were sure it was on its way out, Maryanne and I took the dinghy to a nearby reef for a snorkel. We weren’t expecting much, but it was really quite good, with lots of different soft corals and a few big sponges.
Snorkelling on Rolle Reef
Maryanne had floated the idea of returning to Chat n Chill for lunch, but by the time we got home, I managed to convince her that eating her cooking sounded much better to me in every way. Begonia was still close enough for us to still be able to see and hear all of the drunks, so it’s not like we would be missing out on the atmosphere or anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment