Gale Force in Marsh Harbour

Escape Velocity at anchor in Marsh Harbour waiting out a 2 day gale. Winds were clocked at 40 and 50 knots in Abaco. Bill had plenty of confidence in his ground tackle, but he was downwind of dozens of boats. Of course the largest boat in the harbour - a 70' trawler broke loose when its anchor fouled and was maneuvering through the wildly swinging boats. Bill and another cruiser got on their dinghies, and maneuvered underneath the bow of this trawler as it was powering around the harbor. From his dinghy, Bill was able to untangle a line wrapped around the anchor of the trawler which was hanging from the bow. Of course he related this story to me in his matter-of-fact way, but I later heard from other cruisers about these 'two guys' saving this trawler and countless other boats from destruction by running their 10' dinghies under the bow while it was manuevering. It is hard to describe how strong a gale force wind is, but you can just about stand up. I was hanging on to Jillie so that she didn't fly away! Fortunately, Tide Pool. was tied up across the Marsh Harbour peninsula at Boat Harbour which was in the lee. Although we had a fun couple of days making sure lines didn't chafe, Escape Velocity had all the fun and the glory!

The day after the gale, the owner of the Trawler came up on 'open mic' during the morning Cruisers Net and thanked the brave cruisers who saved his beautiful expedition trawler and countless other boats that would have been smashed. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and the tension was broken during open mic when another woman reassured the skipper that 'Some days you watch the show, and some days you ARE the show!'