Bahamas - September 2005 - just us

After Jane and Noel left, Laurel and I decided to head back to the Bahamas. It was just too beautiful not to go back and the crayfish were easy to get. It took me a while to work out how the locals were getting crayfish. They just seem to drive around in their dinghies with one person standing on the front looking for what we thought we crayfish on the sand. Once we had worked out that they were looking from old pieces of corrugated iron that had been placed there, it was easy to work out that that's what the crayfish hid under during the day.
The water was so clear you could see the barracuda swimming past, also the odd stingray. It was about a week before we were due to head home when hurricane Rita decided to form at the bottom of Andros Island. We had safely anchored behind a reef about 50 miles north of Andros Island and thought we were safe. The first 24 hours were fine as the wind howled towards the centre of a hurricane. However, when it cleared at the bottom of
Andros Island, it threw the sea back at us. Laurel and I were sitting inside playing cards about 10 in the morning when I said it didn't feel right. I went outside and you could almost see the sea coming out the Gulf. It was time to move and move quickly. It was at this point we found our anchor well jammed into a reef and could not be retrieved. After taking a wave which threw me against the side of the yacht, breaking two of my ribs, we needed to move fast. I put both engines in full reverse, let the anchor chain go, and headed north. Several hours later we arrived at Bimini and had managed to radio and contact
Jake on 'Pirates Lady'. 'Pirates Lady' was a yacht working out of Bimini. It really was a relief to be able to talk to somebody when you appear to be alone out of the storm. Jake was very helpful and gave us good advice and we managed to get ourselves safely anchored off North Bimini beach. Two days later we went back to the reef to salvage our anchor and chain before having a very quick trip back to Fort Lauderdale.
Once we returned to Fort Lauderdale we decided to have 'Cool Bananas' hauled out and a bottom antifouled. It was a adventure to go out the New River, and have to deal with nine drawbridges. If you didn't call them correctly they wouldn't open for you. We had heard a story about a yacht who had tried to sneak through behind another yacht and the bridge was closed onto the yacht, crushing the mast. The new river was quite narrow and wide, and as we were 20 feet wide we were very mindful of 150 foot super yachts being towed the other way. Lauderdale Marine had three travel lifts of which only one was wide enough for us. The travel lift was capable of lifting 150 tonne boats, 200 feet long so 'Cool Bananas' was gently plucked from the water and well looked after. After the work was completed we headed back to Loggerhead Marina and prepared her for any cyclones that may have come a long while we were back at home. Now Murphy's Law would have told you that if you do your preparations nothing would happen. But hurricane Wilma came along and thrashed through Florida. 85% of the yachts in the marina were damaged in some way, however our preparations paid off and 'Cool Bananas' came through unscathed.