Impi is dangling on its chain no more than 15m from the beach at Jost Van Dyke Island … White Bay beach … yes, we are here again as this is a beautiful place to stay a while.
Having sailed from Peter Island to Soper's Hole where we spent a few nights … cleaned the boat and stocked up with food and drinks before sailing to a ‘night stop’ at Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke (where the famous Foxy’s restaurant is located) … we headed around the corner to White Bay.
Anchoring in Great Harbour was not the easiest as the place was chock a block with many yachts occupying mooring balls … the limited space for anchoring was taken by other yachts and so we were left with no option but to anchor in deeper water toward the entrance of the bay.
Here my anchoring skills were severely challenged when I could feel the anchor ‘skate’ along a hard crusted sea floor … I lifted anchor three times and only on the fourth did I manage to get the thing to engage, and that after letting out more scope (length of chain) than is usual … 6m of chain for every 1m depth (normally we work on 4).
The depth was 14 meters and we always add another 2 to account for draught and bridle height above water (1m from the depth sensor under the hull to water line plus 1m from water line to the bridle attachment) … therefore 16m depth x 6m = 96m chain instead of 60m.
.
Chain length plays a huge role in anchor penetration … since the chain goes up from the ocean floor to the boat, the tendency is to lift the anchor upwards.
When enough chain is let out, the weight of the chain lies on the ocean floor and tugs at the anchor by utilising a force ‘close to’ parallel with the floor surface thus allowing the shank to dig in and bed itself. The great advantage we have is that Impi carries a heavier chain than most catamarans its size and this really helps to keep the anchor shank against the sea floor.
Ana and I were not impressed by Great Harbour … it lacked the beauty and magical sparkle so many anchorages around here have provided … the only real attraction being Foxy’s where one can jive to the rhythm of live music every Thursday and Friday night after having had a great barbeque which generally costs $28 per head.
Great Harbour was also confusing with its red and green channel markers … I have yet to hear a logical explanation from someone why the red entry marker sits on the edge of a reef, the reef lying to it’s left before meeting with land. Hello !!! Is the BVI not working on the ‘red right returning system’ where the red is always kept to the right when entering the bay? This puts a vessel squarely on the reef!
When one looks at the charts, there is a gap between the reef and land, but then surely the red marker should be positioned to the left side of the reef, not on the outer right side of the reef … call me stupid but this just makes no sense at all and is dangerous!
White Bay has been a hive of activity with many boats visiting from the US Virgin Islands. The vibe has been ‘party, party, party’ and boats of all shapes and sizes come and go, some with as many as 5 Yamaha outboard engines attached to the stern, each being 500HP … that is a combination which puts out 2500HP on a relatively small vessel … some boats arrive with throbbing V8 inboard engines and today we saw one with 3 V8 inboard engines mounted side by side.
These boats fly at massive speeds skimming and leaping from swell to swell before they slow their engines to enter White Bay.
Of course each vessel arrives displaying its powerful music system and combined with the music on shore one has to embrace the party spirit or lift anchor and be gone!
Ana and I decided to ‘be cool’ with the situation … it is the weekend and by Monday most will be back at work. We spent much of our time swimming in the beautiful water and lying on the beach observing the festivity in true American style.
This apparently happens on the ‘odd weekend’ and especially the last week of July where every beach is taken over by visiting boats from Puerto Rico celebrating the festive Puerto Rican holiday, ‘Christmas in July’, in wild style!
Apparently the BVI authorities ‘close a blind eye’ to this and accept the fact that it is customary for the visitors to take charge of every square inch of beach available … one just has to blend in or sail for another destination. We will probably just go with the flow and enjoy the party atmosphere.
Anyway, with all this ‘buzzing’ going on here in White Bay over the last two days, we had many a chuckle as we watched people manoeuvring their boats between others causing havoc and panic in many a situation.
Yesterday I really felt sorry for a family who had obviously bare chartered a catamaran from one of the charter companies as the skipper clearly did not have a ‘cooking clue’ on how to anchor.
At first this fella arrived, turned his vessel over our anchor chain and proceeded to drop anchor across our line.
This could cause our anchor to be lifted and the boat could drag onto the beach so I ran to the bow and donned an expression on my face which persuaded him to leave!
He proceeded to drop his anchor all over the place in the anchorage, almost colliding with a number of yachts in the process before being told to lift anchor and disappear.
It then dawned on me how one hears of so many people who are most tense at the point where they have to anchor their yachts.
This fella kept trying to anchor by dropping it and then reversing against the current and wind away from boats in the vicinity before stopping … hello … I mean … where is the boat going to drift to … yip … right back over his anchor and down stream by the length of chain he had let out.
With this I called him up on the vhf … he chose not to answer it, so I motioned for him to come across and drop anchor directly behind our boat as there was a gap there and I figured I would be close enough to offer him instruction.
The fella was too slow in getting to us and by this time another boat had seen the gap and dropped anchor right behind us … the fella arrived looking confused at which point I indicated that he was too late. He then dropped off his family and friends … literally … they had to dive overboard and swim whilst he kept driving his vessel up and down between the other boats almost colliding with them as he went along!
This went on for about an hour or two … he avoided Impi altogether as both Ana and I displayed a body language which he obviously and correctly had interpreted as ‘stay away from us!’
I kept saying to Ana that I felt sorry for the fella who was clearly ‘out of his depth’ and hoped he could find a spot so I could dingy over to him and explain the process of anchoring to him … as in:
1. Identify a clear area for your vessel to come to rest without the danger of colliding with swimmers, divers or boats as you approach, bearing in mind collision with other vessels, reefs or objects as it swings to anchor in the wind.
2. Make sure the vessel is in enough depth for the hulls to remain clear of grounding
3. Approach the ‘drop zone’ in an ‘up wind’ direction and in a busy anchorage this would be right up and astern of a boat already anchored (in some cases alongside but then retrieving the anchor could be difficult if the wind has shifted and his boat rests overhead your anchor)
4. Drop the anchor and reverse the boat keeping the nose to wind as much as possible and/or keeping the current direction in account (which ever will have the greater influence on the vessels direction of rest on the anchor chain) … keep a tab on the amount of chain being paid out and work on nothing less than 3m chain for every 1m depth
5. Feel for the anchor to grab and set it by briefly reversing on the throttle/s until the boat feels solid
6. Attach the bridle (which limits the boats ‘yawing motion’) and pay out enough chain so the bridle takes up the connection freeing the tension on the windlass (winch that reels in the chain)
7. Tie a rope from the boat to the chain so that the chain is supported if the bridle comes loose.
8. Dive down to the anchor and visually make sure it is well bedded in taking into account the surrounding area.
9. If over-night, set a way point at the vessel and set an anchor alarm which will wake you up in the event of the anchor slipping.
Unfortunately the fella did not get his catamaran anchored … instead his family swam out to him and boarded the catamaran whilst the engines were ‘ticking over’.
Ana and I held our breaths as potentially this was ‘an accident waiting to happen’ but thankfully with all on board he left the bay for another!
We then watched another catamaran lift its anchor … it had a problem with the transmission drives which were slipping.
As a result he had a friend in a dingy pushing him until he had enough speed for the rudders to take effect.
We held our breaths as he broad sided into a Leopard Catamaran, all its occupants landing up on deck trying to fend him off.
Successfully fended off, his boat slipped toward the beach as the dingy worked hard to keep it off … sand was being churned up and there was chaos on board as the skipper feared being stranded …
Fortunately they too got out of the bay safely … unfortunately there were a number of scratches down the sides of his hulls …
And then the evenings … with most boats gone by evening Ana and I could eventually settle down and relax to a drink as the sun ‘slipped under cover’ and all returned to quiet and tranquillity!
This was a wild ‘fathers day’ in the BVI … despite all the commotion I felt the tug on my heart strings throughout the day as I remembered my beautiful father who passed away this week 2 years ago … Dad, I love you and if you are looking down on me … you are the best father a son could ever have wished for … your guidance, instruction and example is the reason I am able to live the life I so enjoy … people promised me the pain would get ‘easier’ with time … I wish it were so … I miss you dad … happy fathers day!
No comments:
Post a Comment