Thursday, March 11, 2010

The day started out to be an overcast, sultry day. The wind was blowing at 20 kts with gusts to 35 kt, and the seas were admirably high as we watched them break at the mouth of the Bimini Sands harbor. We were fascinated to see boats leave in this weather probably to go back to Florida. Port and I went for a walk on the beach and he had a great time with the pounding surf (a little timid at first). We have to watch for Man-o-war jelly fish as they litter the beach with their poisonous tentacles – I always keep my sandals on and try to keep Port away.

Around late morning we heard a “Mayday” call on the VHF radio and it sounded close. Mark and I walked to the nearby beach and our hearts sank. A 50 ft sailboat, “Paradox”, had run aground on a sand bar between North and South Bimini Islands near the channel to the Alice Town Harbor.

Several small boats with locals responded to the “Mayday”. One towed in the life raft.

As Mark stayed and watched Paradox actually became free of the first sandbar. With no one aboard, the wind and waves pushed her a couple hundred yards to another sandbar on the point of N Bimini channel.

Like Mark said unfortunately there was no one around because they were taking the boat’s owner and his parents into Alice Town. Mark heard later that the lady had been taken to the hospital for cuts and bruises.

Both Mark and I agreed that we probably would not have abandoned Grateful quite so soon as the boat was near shore and the tide was coming in. The injuries probably had a lot to do with their decision. And as I said before, the wind and the waves were terrible. Even big boats were making big splashes!

By the time Paradox had become stuck on the second sandbar, more local boats had arrived to try to figure out how to help. Some boarded Paradox and surveyed damage and at that time there was not water in the bilge, but she was very stuck.

Lines were attached and pulled and broken several times. All the while Paradox kept being pushed closer to the rocks on the beach.

Finally, they were able to free her, but by then she was riding low in the water. We heard them say that there was 3.5 ft of water in the bottom of the boat. Because of that Paradox ran aground a third and final time.

This time a line was attached to the mast and to the bow. One boat heeled her over to get the keel unstuck, and the other boat pulled her away from the shallows. Free at last.

Paradox was towed into the harbor and tied to the nearest open pier. We heard over the VHF radio later that the owner was claiming a total loss. Fellow travelers commented that in the years that they have been traveling to S Bimini, they have seen boats aground or sunk several times right in this channel area. The channel into N Bimini is not marked at all – in fact, we have spotted the red buoy on the north beach of S Bimini, and the green buoy on the south beach of S Bimini. They might have helped Paradox.

After these 5-6 hours of angst, we retired to Grateful and thanked God and our lucky stars that it wasn’t our story. And just as the sun was going down, we spotted this supply ferry approaching the marina entrance. It was big and with the nasty wind and waves the marina entrance was looking mighty small. At the last minute the ferry backed away.

That’s all for now folks, Good night!!!