Our last stop in the Berry Islands brought us to Chub Cay….almost. We radioed in to see if they had a slip for us for the night and to check their rates. $4.35 a foot???? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Most of the marinas we've stopped at have been about $1.00-$1.50 per foot. This place was highway robbery. So, we decided to go straight through, placing our bets on a dubious forecast to go 80 nautical miles west to Bimini- thus avoiding an expensive night, and staying ahead of schedule (albeit somewhat un-mentally prepared for the two day journey).
Things start going a little downhill from here.
An hour or so later, as Matt leaned over the side of the boat to clean Wookie's astro turf in the ocean, the turf fell overboard. Turf overboard!! We circled the boat around and headed back, but turf begin to sink so I dove into the ocean and for the first time experienced the very odd sight of Matt sailing the boat around me. Turf in hand, I clambered back up onto the boat and began to dry off.
Shortly thereafter, we noticed our speed had been dwindling, and though it could have been due to a current, the more likely culprit was sea grass wrapped around our propeller and rudder. Back I went into the water. Matt is usually our designated diver, but since he had an ear infection, the torch was passed to me. Sure enough handful after handful of sea grass came off. We were hauling more grass than a VW van with BC plates.
Bad things happen in threes right? HA! I wish! After our barbeque cover blew over board (we managed to get that with the boat hook so we were saved another dive) we figured maybe our luck was about to turn. An adorable tiny bird perched on our deck. Where did it come from? This minuscule creature was in the middle of nowhere, 30 miles from land and in the midst of wind and drizzling rain. We marvelled at it hopping around on deck- it even landed on Matt's arm for a few seconds. We attempted to feed it some seeds when- poof! It disappeared into our V-berth hatch burrowing out of sight in the vicinity of our bed.
It was growing increasingly dark and I was growing increasingly tired so we decided to drop the anchor. Right then and there, miles from land, there was only about 18 feet of water. I put the engine in reverse to set the anchor- my mind drifting to thoughts of my warm, dry bed (now shared with a Bananaquit). I put it back in neutral and ERRRRRR! Off goes the engine alarm to tell us that when we reversed, our dinghy line got wrapped in our prop.
Refusing to deal with our latest problem in the dark, we exchanged kind words and marvelled at strength of our relationship amidst such adversity. NOT! We just about killed each other and went to bed angry!
That's when the thunder and lightening started and we discovered not one, but THREE new leaks on our boat.
After a wet, rocky and sleepless night, Matt's tired, I'm tired, and Wookie's never felt better. Our little stowaway emerged just after breakfast, found it's way to the deck and flew off to sea. Strange indeed.
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