CROOKED ISLAND - THE DAY THAT GOT ME BACK ON BOARD
- Aug 8, 2018
- 5 min read
If you read our last blog post and/or watched our last video, you know that we had an engine failure. You also know that I was teetering on being done with this grand adventure we had leaped into. Things weren't working out how we had hoped, and it seemed like we were facing one obstacle after another.
When we picked up anchor in Attwood Harbor, my heart still wasn't in it. Atwood Harbor was probably the most beautiful anchorage we had been in at that point, but I didn't want to snap a single photo or capture even a minute's worth of video. I was plain and simply pissed.
I'm fairly certain our sail around the north side of Crooked Island was uneventful. In fact, as I'm writing this, I don't even remember it. I have a habit of spending a lot of time in my own thoughts. I always have. In fact, there is much of life that I don't remember and I don't think it's because I have a bad memory. It's because I get caught up in my own thoughts. It's something I've tried to work on, being present in the moment, especially with family and friends.
The first memory I have of that sailing day was Lisa's giddy excitement when the lighthouse came into view. It was all by itself on a tiny islet off the north west corner of Crooked Island. We kept a pretty wide berth as we came around the point, but Lisa hoped that we could get some decent pictures of it. She really loves lighthouses, as do I. I swapped out to my zoom lens, and did my best to grab a decent photo from so far away. Unfortunately, I couldn't get one that did it justice, so here's one from the internet.
We sailed around the northwest point and headed south toward the sandy anchorage off of Landrail Point. The water got more and more shallow as we approached the island, and the clarity was unreal. We were still new to anchoring in the shallows of the Bahamas, so we picked a spot about two hundred yards off of the beach in about eight feet of water.
The wind was whipping pretty well. We had already pulled the sails down about a mile away, so we slowly motored toward our spot against the wind on our one engine. Lisa took the helm, and Alyssa and I went up to the bow to drop anchor. I guided Lisa to a nice sandy patch, gave the signal to go into neutral, and tossed the anchor off the bow.
The wind began to blow us backwards as I let out chain by hand. We learned quickly that By Faith likes to turn her nose away from the wind, and if I let out too much scope too quickly, we'd start to drift sideways with the wind. Once the scope was out and we had tension on the anchor chain, she'd come back around with her nose into the wind, so it wasn't a major issue but we learned to let the scope out slowly to keep us pointed into the wind.
Lisa backed down with our one engine, the anchor bridal swung us straight, and the anchor set in the sandy bottom. A sigh of relief, a thumbs up to Lisa in the cockpit and a slight smile across my face meant we were dug in nicely. The view from here was absolutely stunning, as was the water. It was like looking into the bottom of a swimming pool. Things could be a lot worse, I suppose.
We only intended to stay over night and start our next leg to Long Island the following morning. After seeing how beautiful it was and that the beach was empty and very inviting, we decided to stay an extra night and spend the next day at the beach. We settled in for dinner and a relaxing evening together.
The following morning we enjoyed some coffee together, got our beach essentials together, dropped the dinghy in the water, and sped over to the beach. We found a nice spot free of shallow rocks and landed the dinghy in the sand. Everyone lent a hand and some muscle, and we pulled the dinghy up on the beach.
I found a nice spot for our umbrella and set it up for some much needed shade. Lisa spread out our Monkey Mat beneath it and we all huddled in the shade and admired the view. It was simply breathtaking. As I looked out at the water, By Faith, and the horizon, my attitude slowly began to change. Lauren and Alyssa were sitting together chatting under the umbrella, Lisa got comfortable in the sand sunning herself and I sat and admired all the views had to offer.
The coast line was dotted with small houses, each with their unique color and style, and each with their unique amount of damage from hurricanes Irma and Maria that had ripped through the Bahamas a few months prior. We walked south down the coastline and admired the strength of these structures, the softness of the warm sand and the clarity of the cool water. Huge limestone slabs lay flat at the waters edge creating small habitats for even smaller creatures. This was truly an awesome place to explore.
When we made it back to our claimed spot on the beach, the girls settled back into the shade and Lisa was back and forth from sunning and swimming. I hadn't had the drone in the air since we were in Turks and Caicos and this seemed like a great day and place for it.
I managed to go through all three of my batteries while zipping around through the air. I also successfully avoided a near drone drowning and tree collision while trying to capture some up-close footage. I've learned that trees are my enemy when I'm flying the drone, but no risk-it, no biscuit, right?
Each of us were doing our own thing, but we were together enjoying God's creation. We spent the rest of the afternoon at this magnificent beach and headed back to the boat for dinner and a good night's rest before our next sailing leg in the morning. My heart was in a different place that when the day started, but probably not completely mended. We'd have to wait and see what other potential issues could send my attitude down a thorny path. This was, after all, an adventure of unknown outcome and we were still only sailing by faith.
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