'Twas The Night Before.....

'Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the boat, not a creature was stirring, not even a goat! (sorry, it's the only creature I could think of that rhymes with boat) When all of a sudden, Scott rose out of bed, to see a boat dragging down on us directly ahead!!

Yep. For some reason, we can't figure it out yet, (I think it may have been a Divine intervention) Scott woke up at 11pm & went out for a look see. We do that sometimes at night just to check on things. What he found was a sailboat dragging 5 feet off our bow. EMERGENCY!!!!!! We got our mega watt spotlight & were blasting it at their windows, then we used our fog horn....no response. There was no response because the owner's weren't there! AHHHH!!!!! Bigger emergency!!! I tried calling the beach club on the radio. There was a band playing & I thought they could announce which boat was dragging & the owner's could come help save our boats. No response. I'm so scared at this point my hands were shaking. Meanwhile, Scott is trying to fend off 25,000 pounds of sailboat....I mean literally...at this point he had his hands on her stern trying to push her off our bow as she was starting to swing into us Our fog horn & radio calls did get the attention of other cruisers & just as our boats were about to collide, Cam, our friend from s/v Te Amor, zipped in between the boats with his dinghy & acted like a giant fender. Thank God! And Thank You Cam! Scott was going to do the same thing with our dinghy but our stupid motor dies if it goes faster than idle, so that would have been useless. It happened so fast there wasn't any time for us to pull our anchor & move. Seconds after Cam arrived 3 other guys were there in their dinghys pushing her off to our side, we moved our boat forward a little & whew...crisis diverted for Malaika. However, the boat is still dragging, now headed for another boat! So, Scott & the other guys surrounded her with the dinghys & like little tug boats, they pushed her onto a dock & tied her up. The owner's returned at 1:00am. At 3am I went out to check on things & they were moving their boat!! I screamed at them "Don't you dare anchor next to me!! You almost hit us!!" Scott was so proud of me. They didn't respond but they did go straight to the marina so at least we didn't have to worry about them. I'm not being truthful when I say "owners". This was a rental boat. Renters do not have good reputations with cruisers. We all cringe when one anchors next to us. Some of them are good sailors but many of them are not! We saw these idiots anchor earlier in the evening. They only put out 35-40 feet of chain (not nearly enough...we have 90 feet out) & they never backed down on the anchor to make sure it was set. Then they promptly hopped in their dinghy & left the boat. We should have said something then. I won't be quiet next time. I did email the rental company to tell them all about it. Grrrrrr....

 

Scott & Cam....Sailors AND tug boat captains!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time at the cruisers potluck. Thank You John & Sylvia from s/v Drakon for putting it all together!

Thanks John! He's the one who kinda looks like Santa!

We even had live music!

 

Santa & Mrs Santa come to the Bahamas too!

Another Santa paid us a visit in the wee hours of the morning. Thank You Sally! It was like finding a present on Christmas morning!

 

On another note, our macerator & dinghy motor continue to give us much grief. Scott took the macerator apart for the 4th time yesterday & now thinks it may be a power issue. Ugh. Poor Scott. Now today, Scott is really sick. I think handling all that poo has actually made him physically ill. He washed his hands in bleach....but that's just so much bacteria up close. No gloves. Please say a little prayer for Scott to feel better. The dinghy motor runs as long as we keep it in idle. We will deal with these issues when we get back to Marsh Harbor.

Don't ya just love Scott's hat?! He made it from palm fronds.

For now, we are looking forward to New Year's. Scott & I are splurging New Year's Eve & going to the big party at Bluff House Marina. It was our Christmas present to each other. Then, on New Year's Day we're going to the Junkanoo! Yay! Can't wait!

Love & miss everybody! This is the 2nd time I've written this blog today. I was trying to post the 1st one & somehow erased it! Hope this one goes through.

Love, Michelle, Scott & Jib

 

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