Antigua
English Harbor
17.00.259N
61.45.596W

Yep, I’ve got a cold. So it was Dale’s turn to read most of the day while I alternated between sleeping in bed and sleeping in the hammock. At one point while in the hammock, I opened an eye just in time to see a boat that had pulled in dangerously close to us yesterday, come drifting behind us, missing us by mere inches.

The people, a family of four, had left it earlier in the day and were nowhere to be found. I yelled for Dale to come up and ran for a boat hook to push them back the way they had come.
There were black clouds coming over the mountain and the wind was beginning to change directions. I noticed that other boats around us were having problems as well. One small boat further to our port side was dragging into shore and a huge catamaran behind us on the starboard side was already on shore.

The catamaran’s captain had gone in to clear customs and the people left on board were desperately trying to kedge themselves off by pulling up on their anchor. One of the women called over and asked if Dale could take her into the harbor so that she could find their captain, which of course, he was more than happy to do. While they were gone the remaining passengers did manage to get themselves off the beach but then they had to re-anchor.

Two other people saw the little boat heading towards shore on our port side. One had thought quickly enough to bring a second anchor with him in a dinghy. He threw it in and handed the end to the second guy who had managed to climb on board and secure it to a cleat. Unfortunately, they were having problems pulling it back out to deeper water.

So here I am watching the cat on the right with a handful of people who were doing a fine job of saving themselves; a little excited maybe, but doing a great job none the less and the little boat on the left that appeared to be stuck in the shallow water and the one right beside us swinging behind us within 6 inches of hitting us each time, which I would push off and then wait for it to arc out and then back again.

But then, here comes Dale, like a knight in shining armor, like Dudley Dooright on his trusty steed, like the Marines to the rescue, zooming across the harbor he circles around the cat and says something to them and zooms right past me to the little boat stuck on the beach and speaks to the two guys wrestling with it. He maneuvers the dink behind the boat and each of them tie their own dinghies to the sides and they rev up their dinghy engines. With the three of their combined engine horsepower, they pushed the little boat into deeper water, where they were able to hold it in place and reanchor using the boat’s own anchor. Then he returned to our boat.

By this time, I’ve put a fender on our port side and have the timing down to where I can watch everyone and still poke the interloper in the side when it gets too close.

When the catamaran captain returned, he takes the boat, all of the passengers and leaves. Dale decides the best course of action for us is to move over a bit since the one getting too close doesn’t have anyone on board and we can’t keep pushing it off until they return. So, in spite of the gusty winds and a well set anchor, we decide to move to give ourselves some extra cushion.

Of course, the second we do lift our anchor, another boat comes into the equation and anchors in the same area we were trying to move to. It doesn’t matter, we need the room. So after three attempts, we finally get the anchor set again, have more room to swing, we’re a little too close to the new guy but not so close as to warrant another shift in location.

Tonight, as I sit here, we’re all in the process of turning 180* in the opposite direction, the people behind us finally returned and noticed that we were farther away. I think they believed that they may have dragged but looked around and seemed satisfied that they were alright. I’m not sure the owners of the little boat that did drag ever learned what happened unless they saw all the footprints on their boat and started asking questions of their neighbors.

But as I say, we’re all in the process of turning again, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.