Cold Fronts and Things that Go Bump in the Night!

So - this will be a brief post I think...I never really know until I start writing!  We are currently in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, sitting out yet another cold front.  January was bad - one after another.  February was great with no big issues, and here we are in March with two back to back.  We just spent 6 days in Treasure Cay (very protected for 6 days), and are now back in Marsh Harbour.  We like the Abacos in that there are "facilities" and its short, protected hops between destinations.  We enjoyed Treasure Cay and its fabulous beaches.

Marsh Harbour has many facilities including 3 hardware stores, marine parts, numerous restaurants, liquor stores etc.  So we have been taking this little down-time to catch up on a couple of projects.  our fridge was not cooling completely, so I topped off the refrigerant, fixed a leaking hatche etc.  You know - the definition of cruising?  Fixing boats in exotic locations!....but thankfully nothing major.

I did want to write about one thing that happened while we were in the Exumas....now several weeks ago.......read on!

Things that Go Bump in the Night

While we have become very comfortable with our new Mantus Anchor....yes, we love it!  you never know what your anchoring mates are using, or how well they know how to anchor......what shape their equipment is in etc.  That's why its nice to be up towards the front of the anchorage.  We were in Black Point, Exumas waiting out a blow - 30+ kts.  It was actually relatively calm and we were on our friends boat TraSea.  Just finished dinner...of course it was night and pitch black, when suddenly BAMM!  What the hell was that.  We all dashed to the cockpit and sure enough, we had been hit on the side by another boat.  they were on deck and disoriented.  What happened?

Well - I had not heard of this before, hence the reason for the story.  The other boat had not turned off thier windlass breaker...in fact they didn't seem to know they had one!  The "up" switch had apparently shorted and while they were in thier cabin, the anchor raised itself and they were  adrift......if fact, the owner said when he came on deck he was confused by all the other boats in the anchorage moving.  Well I'm sure that woke him up quickly.  Fortunately no damage was done.  We helped them get secure for the night using our dinghy (and making sure he didn't hit our adjacent boat).  But anyway - a little anecdote about cruising and when you get that dreaded "Bump in the Night".

Happy Hour - thank you to Tom and Judy on Destination Unknown - Treasure Cay.