Allan Cay, Exuma Islands

Today we left Nassau for Allan Cay, which is one of the northernmost islands in the Exuma (pronounced Ex-OOO-ma, not eczema as I have recently learned!) island chain. During the passage across the Exuma Bank there was no wind and the shallow water was like glass the whole way -- we saw starfish, coral, even a nurse shark as clear as day. Kevin finally used his new trolling rod and within 10 minutes caught a fish, even though we were racing along at 7 knots. I had just snapped a picture when the fish started flopping and flopped himself right off the hook and thunk-thunked down the transom steps like a slinky. Guess he is the "one that got away". After that, no more fish would bite.

We had some excitement today. I was preparing dinner and we were listening to Headline News. I was sort of listening to the VHF radio out of the corner of my ear when I heard what I thought was a distress call on the VHF. After the experience at Hoffman Cay we have started monitoring the VHF at anchor, we used to just turn it off. Sure enough there was a trawler (Hart's Desire) taking on water that had beached itself between two rocks. They had no pump and were radioing the marina on Highborne Cay (1 island to the south) for assistance. They claimed that they were south of Highborne Cay, but their GPS coordinates put them in our anchorage in a cove not visible to most boats in the anchorage (there were at least 8-10 boats). Another boat radioed that they were willing to help but the couple on Hart's were unsure of their position. They kept emphatically repeating that they were "nowhere near Allan Cay" even though each time they gave their coordinates they were smack in the center of Allan Cay. The vessel was taking on water and their bilge pumps weren't working and they had no spare pump so no way to pump the water out. So Kevin got in the dinghy to check and see if they really were where their coordinates said they were and sure enough Hart's Desire was in Allan Cay. So Kevin raced back to our boat to get some pumps and went back to help. By the time Kevin got back to Hart's Desire, the water was up to the floorboards and still rising. Kevin rigged up the spare pump with a garden hose and spliced it into the nearest 12v source, a reading light in the v-berth (bedroom). Meanwhile another boat showed up with another electric pump, which Kevin also hooked up in MacGyver fashion. With the two pumps running, the water level started to drop, but now the tide was going out and with the boat beached it was listing about 30 degrees. A toolbox slid off a shelf and hit Kevin in the shoulder, narrowly missing his head. Once the water level was low enough, Kevin inspected all their seacocks looking for the source of the leak, but couldn't find it. After 2 1/2 hours, Kevin had done all he could and knew at least that they wouldn't sink. Of course by now it was pitch black and raining so the dinghy ride home was a wet one. We're in a pretty remote area, so it's not like in the US where you can just call Sea-Tow and they'll come out and save your butt. You need to be self sufficient out here, or you end up hoping a good Samaritan will be around to rescue you. Here they were in a crowded anchorage, and out of all the boats only 2 were monitoring the vhf, the rest were completely oblivious that a boat was sinking less than 1/4 mile away. This is the 2nd boat that we've heard in the past week that has been taking on water with no spare pump. We have 2 spares -- a 12 volt electric pump and a hand-operated pump as a backup (not to mention about a half dozen other pumps on board that we could easily cannibalize to pump water out of the bilge if we had to). We also carry several different size buckets, but sometimes buckets won't fit into tiny bilge or engine compartments. Hopefully we'll never need them, but it is nice to know they're there. We'll keep you posted on how this drama ends, tomorrow they're going to have to get off the beach somehow, and we doubt they'll be able to do it on their own.