Well, this is supposed to be an adventure, right? So I didn't quite follow the plan for today, which was to finish the steering. Or it didn't follow me. (That little white dot in this picture is AF from Ft. George.)
Blowing like all get out, and of course, I am still in the worst anchorage in the bay, never sheltered from the wind, from any direction, or the waves. And it has been blowing. But, since the Bermuda government gave me 2 weeks, and today is the 14th day, I HAD to go ashore and extend my stay. So, after the batteries were partially charged, I pulled the dink up alongside in this roaring wind, loaded my blue waterproof bag with my documents, and a bag of trash into the dink, bobbing and jerking on a short painter in the waves, and took off for shore. The Canadians I met the other night were "oot and aboot, eh?", and I invited them for a beer, that I owed them from the other night, after I ran my errands. It is the last night the local pub will be open for the season - the place where I drank a beer, and ordered pizza to go my first night here. With the closing tomorrow, they are almost out of everything, and ran out of differen brands of beers as we drank them.
Immigration is great. The fellow there remembered me from 2 weeks ago and that I was in pretty bad shape when I arrived, and told me that I had THREE weeks here, not 2, and to come back next Monday a week, if I needed to extend. Great. Didn't need to leave the boat at all.
I stopped at the free lounge with wifi that Bermuda Yacht Services runs exclusively for boaters, to see what it was like, and then walked up to the hardware store for a new bucket, after loosing mine at sea, when I stupidly tried to draw water from the ocean passing at 5 knots, and when it filled, it jerked the handle right off, and bye-bye, was gone. When am I going to learn? While at the hardware store, I spoke with Chris, one of the counter men there, about fishing and now I am determined to spend more time with a hook in the water. Lots and lots of good edible fish below my boat, and after a 20 year slow down, folks here are now catching 40 and 60 pound groupers from the land!
Asked directions to Ft George, up the hill, where Bermuda Radio - above- the official harbormaster for the island is located, and climbed the hill. Took a couple of pictures while up there, and got into the building to shake the hand of the man who talked me in the day I arrived, as well as the one I was handed off to, and thanked them most sincerely for their patience and kindness, and told them how grateful I am for their help.
That is Annah Foster from a gun mount at the top of the hill with camera zoomed in.
Decided to get a hair cut - my first in a foreign country, and was recommended to Malcolm's and got a nice trim from him. Learned about how the black people here shave, without a razor, as many get bad ingrown hairs. Everyone here is so nice.
Walked back to the pub, and stopped in to see the Canadian's boat and slowly, 2 of them wandered over for a beer with me at the pub. The master, Al, never showed up, as he was in the middle of a project, until way after dark, when he came running to get Mac's help as there was a young fellow, sitting now on his boat, who's dink had come untied and drifted away. I volunteered to take him out to look for it, and lo and behold, it is Drake from last week, who helped me take the jib down. He said he was so glad it was me who showed up. Erin was doing a last load of wash at the launderette, and he had run to the store for last groceries - they are leaving in the morning - and his hard rowable dink was gone. He has years single handing and I cannot believe his knots would not hold.
So, with my dink a bit low on fuel, the prop failing, and no good spot light, we putt-ed away from the lights of the harbor dock and started looking for the dink in the dark, discussing the tides, current, and wind direction, and where it might be. Unfortunately, they all pointed towards the Town Cut, and the Atlantic Ocean. He had only been ashore an hour. The wind was howling, the waves were splashing big up and over our bow soaking us good, and we scanned the shore, hoping it had run aground close by, while riding all the way down to the Cut, and decided to cross over it, the channel, that is, and look on the shore of the island opposite.
And bang - we ran hard aground, or the engine did. A rock or coral reef, right at the edge of the Cut - it really IS a cut - and the engine stopped, sitting on hard ground and is holding us fast where we are, and the rest of the dink is bouncing in the waves and tide, and it is dark, and we have no light, and the tide is going out, and there are sea monsters waiting to eat us when we sink, after the wind and tide take us out into the Atlantic, which at that point is not a mile away! I got the engine re-started, and Drake used the longer hand pump as a pole to push us up and over this little reef, and we headed back towards where we had come from, and safety. And, both of us, nervously, laughed at our close call. What a night.
I dropped him back at the dock, and rode out to, again belatedly, turn on AF's anchor light, change into dry clothing - rain suit actually, got my hand held spotlight, and returned to pick up Erin with the groceries, and then Drake with the laundry and take them home to their boat. When I returned to the pub, it was empty, so Chris, the bartender and I sat and drank a few, and told some stories, and then he and the kitchen staff locked the doors, and we did it all again, just staff, and me. And no tab! On the house Can you beat that?
When I returned to AF a few minutes ago, I thought to myself, that I am having so much fun, it should be illegal. What a great day!
BTW, Drake and I agreed, that he will ask the Harbormaster, if his dink is not found tomorrow morning, but shows up later after his departure, to give it over to me, to ride somewhere on AF and I will find them in St Maarten, and return it to them. Hopefully it is sitting somewhere aground, in plain sight tomorrow morning, because I just don't know where I will put it for the 1000 mile trip.
The adventure with Drake has reminded me that there is no one here, waiting for me, if I don't come back to the boat, or return to shore. No one to call the authorities to start a look for me, if I fall off the dink, in rough weather, or the engine fails, and I drift out to sea in the dark. So, I am going to try to work at keeping the dink better stocked with stuff, should something like that happen. But in the end, it will be all part of my adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment