Gear We’re Leaving Off – Cruising ICW to Bahamas

[skipgundlach]

Rule 62 - a tragic story if there ever was one, especially since they could have gone a bit south and not had the rage effect. At some point, had a picture gallery of the salvage (they got the boat off the beach, overland, and for all I know it's sailing today,having been sent to the US for reconstruction), but can't put my hands on it at the moment.

I often (when I'm there, of course) host the Abaco Cruiser's net,and every single morning there's a report on the cuts into the Sea of Abaco, one at a time...

[Group9]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

Rule 62 - a tragic story if there ever was one, especially since they could have gone a bit south and not had the rage effect. At some point, had a picture gallery of the salvage (they got the boat off the beach, overland, and for all I know it's sailing today,having been sent to the US for reconstruction), but can't put my hands on it at the moment.

I often (when I'm there, of course) host the Abaco Cruiser's net,and every single morning there's a report on the cuts into the Sea of Abaco, one at a time...

Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of, Rule 62. I was sailing in the Bahamas when that occurred so it's always been in my mind. Hard to understand what made them do what they did.

I had a friend who was going there for the first time and was planning to boat from Guana to GTC and I was trying to impress on her the importance of not trying to go through the Whale Cay pass without checking with the locals first. Last time I was in the Abacos, I motored in a center console out to one of the cuts that had a good rage going, just to look at it. From the sound side, it looked pretty bad. I couldn't imagine trying to go through it at night.

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by Group9

Every where else in the Bahamas, you're main danger is dragging anchor and being blown ashore, not something a life raft would really help that much with.

The only other situation I can think of is one like the boat that tried to come in through a cut during a rage at night that, of course, hit a reef, and sunk and killed one of the people on it. Make sure you understand the whole rage and cut thing in the Bahamas for sure.

Agree that a liferaft would be way down my list of 'essentials' for the Bahamas, particularly for a short hop approach across the Stream made from South Florida...

Just to clarify, Laura Zekoll died as a result of the crew of RULE 62 taking the decision to abandon the boat during the grounding, and she was swept away during or shortly after the transfer to the life raft... As has happened many times before, she would very likely be alive today, had they simply stayed with the boat, instead...

[vtsailguy]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Curious, How do you sail 10,000 miles in the Caribbean in a year???

Vermont > Dominica > Rhode Island

Most of the time was in the Caribbean.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Jon Eisberg

Agree that a liferaft would be way down my list of 'essentials' for the Bahamas, particularly for a short hop approach across the Stream made from South Florida...

Just to clarify, Laura Zekoll died as a result of the crew of RULE 62 taking the decision to abandon the boat during the grounding, and she was swept away during or shortly after the transfer to the life raft... As has happened many times before, she would very likely be alive today, had they simply stayed with the boat, instead...

I guess I had forgotten they deployed the life raft. And, then the raft hit the reef, right?

Sometimes I wonder if life rafts haven't killed more people than they have saved. They often seem to encourage people to leave a still floating and sea worthy boat, only to be dumped into the ocean when the raft overturns, or while trying to get into it.

[Jim Cate]

For those of us in distant parts of the globe, could you tell us what a "rage" actually is?

I gather from the name that it ain't nice, no problems there, but am interested in the conditions that make it thus. Probably nothing exclusive to the Bahamas, mon...

Jim

[Dulcesuenos]

A rage is when ocean waves (sometimes from 1000 miles away) build up and move against a narrow cut or shallow shelf with a cut or channel thru it making it extremely dangerous for navigation. The water rages, breaking waves , confused seas and all sorts of nastiness. Whale cay pass is one but rages happen in several areas depending on several factors

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[skipgundlach]

All the cuts between Marsh Harbour and the Atlantic are susceptible.

Rule 62 came to grief trying to make one of the cuts of Lynyard Cay. Whale, North and South Man'O'War, Tilloo, North Bar, Little Harbour and probably one or more others I've forgotten all can be very nervous making in as little as 15 easterly knots, especially against the tide.

The storm in question had Chris Parker advising those who wanted to see some tremendous wave action to go see it on Saturday morning.

We were in Eleuthera and got lost on Saturday, but got a ride to Glass Bridge, which, in a prior rage, had moved 7' west. They just adjusted the road and kept on using it.

But it was impressive, even a day later as things were settling down (R62 tried it on Friday night, at the worst), to see waves crashing over the hill, and washing down on the road, hard enough to displace vehicles the previous day.

We went south from there to a V-shaped canyon/cliff 50 feet high. Standing back, and to the side, by over 30 feet, my friend was knocked down by a wave; I was a bit behind him and had time to turn and duck, so merely got soaked.

A rage is a sight to behold, and you really don't want to be in one...

[zboss]

Originally Posted by 4arch

Can you tell us more about this - what kind of conditions you encountered? What were your departure and arrival points? What equipment failed?

We had the windlass wiring get wet due to a leak from our locker scuppers, a sail rip, and a flag halyard break (the one we use for the radar reflector, which... btw... should also be mandatory), ssb abnormalities, a camera break, our SPOT break, a steering cable break, problems with our wind sensor, and the fridge lost all its 134a. I'm probably forgetting another dozen items.

Regardless, what will break on your boat is totally different and the time after that completely other stuff will break. I don't know of a single boat we travelled with this winter that did not have some equipment failure.

On our way back, a boat sunk and three people were rescued from it. It apparently sank in less than a minute. We heard the rescue over the VHF but could only hear one side of the conversation.

All of these things just taught me how quickly things can go wrong and although none were really life threatening, it doesn't take much imagination to think "I can do something about this problem and relieve my concerns.". Our choice, which is not necessarily going to be YOUR choice is to get a liferaft for the next trip. 2 grand to save our lives doesn't seem like much money when your are out there alone at night.

There are no lack of liferafts on boats in the bahamas. We went intending to use our dinghy but not again because we can afford a liferaft... also personal epirbs, maybe personal ais, more flares, more backup everything.

Marathon to Chub.

I think people really under estimate the gulf stream after having too many successful crossings. We left on a perfect Chris Parker forecast, the forecast so many depend upon, and by the time we got to Andros the weather was much much worse than forecast. Not his fault... its just the way it is. You cannot expect your forecast to be right all the time.

[onestepcsy37]

Spot break? Just curious as we used one daily to keep family/friends advised of our whereabouts. Being self contained I would think its fairly rugged if kept dry.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

Spot break? Just curious as we used one daily to keep family/friends advised of our whereabouts. Being self contained I would think its fairly rugged if kept dry.

You would think! The little spring that attaches to the circuit board from the battery broke away from the board... not sure of the root cause but it looks like there was some circuit board corrosion from salt water. Hard to say because it's never been near water because we keep it in the cabin. Maybe salt air.