“Do you know where MY Boat is?”
The answer to the question was, “Yes”. But I get ahead of myself. We are back in Placencia sitting out some nasty weather. Squalls and high winds. Every night you get just a little nervous as you are wondering, will my anchor hold, will the guy next door or better yet in front of you hold?
Two days ago a little Gemini Catamaran came in. Father and son on board. The boat is worn and needs some work. The dinghy davits with the solar panels look like they have been hit and are quite bent and mangled. The first day they came in they attempted to drop right on top of our anchor. We asked them to move and they did. For the next hour we watched each of them jump into the water with the anchor and attempt to set it. There was yelling and cursing and shouts about coral and slow down the boat you’re going to run me over. The anchor is only a little danforth, much too small and only rope rode that looks much too short. In Placencia we tend to anchor in 20 feet on average. Needless to say we were concerned. Their outboard doesn’t work so they swam to the bar next to them and got a ride into town with the shuttle launcha.
The next morning they were gone. We thought they had gone in closer to town to get repaired and may-be provision. Last night they returned. The wind is 16 knots to 20 knots with the occasional gust of 25 knots. The anchorage is rolly and squalls are predicted. Not a star in sight, just thick black clouds. Sitting in the cockpit and watching the other boats to make sure that all is well and besides the bar, Tranquillos has live music that is keeping us up. Finally around 9pm I head downstairs to go to bed when….a large bump and horrible sound stops me on the top stair. Yes, the Gemini has drug into us and is on the move….We see that the interior lights are on and start yelling, flashing lights, and hailing them on the VHF Radio. NO response! They are now headed to the boat behind us. We are hailing him on the radio and soon most of the people on our side of the anchorage are flashing lights and blowing horns, anything to get their attention. NO RESPONSE! We try and hail the bar, but the music is so loud that no one hears us. Finally after making sure that we don’t have a hole in us and that we are not taking on water. We sit down and hail the other boats to make sure everyone is okay. We can see the Gemini about quarter of a mile off in the distance headed for Big Creek. It looks like they got in shallow water or re-set the anchor because they appear to be stopped.
Finally the shuttle launcha comes by our boat and the son yells, “Do you know where our boat is?” “Yes, it hit us and barely missed the boat behind us and is back there near Big Creek.” I will spare you specific quotes of some of the more colorful language. Fill in the blanks. His reply to us is, “Well it just got loose.” Not a sorry are you okay. At least they were smart enough to tie up to the bar’s dock last night. Hopefully they will stay tied to the dock as the weather doesn’t look good for tonight either. Stay tuned…
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