Sailboat Grounds Off Bimini

[doug86]

You gotta be more careful out there!

Bimini battered sail boat� | The Triton

[imagine2frolic]

Both channels are an easy read with the color of the water. Some are a wee bit nervous getting up next to the beach in the old channel. Hopefull she got off safely?.........i2f

[Intentional Drifter]

From the linked article, it sounds like they never got the markers replaced. With the wind and sea state as described, that entrance would be high on the pucker factor.

When we came through there last year, another boat went aground about an hour later, right in the same spot.

I hope they're OK and the boat wasn't severely damaged.

Although it is now a year old, I posted some fairly detailed notes on this entrance.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tes-23432.html

ID

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

Both channels are an easy read with the color of the water. Some are a wee bit nervous getting up next to the beach in the old channel. Hopefull she got off safely?.........i2f

The newspaper article says shes afloat in port now

[imagine2frolic]

Originally Posted by idpnd

The newspaper article says shes afloat in port now

That's always good news..........i2f

[svHyLyte]

That's a disturbing event. We have some friends on a sistership to ours headed there even as I type. Based on a reading of the article in the Triton, it seems the skipper ignored ID's warning:

By the way, while it probably goes without saying, don't even try either entrance with strong onshore winds/seas. Visual Piloting Rules definitely apply.

Words to live by, eh?

[markpj23]

Bahamas Chatter posting now says that a group of US college kids went out and got the boat off the bar..... and they're now claiming salvage rights!

What a nightmare for the owners.....

[doug86]

Well, if they pulled that boat off, they certainly deserve a salvage award.

[speciald@ocens.]

Speaking of salvage - don't mean to highjack the post, but... Two weeks ago I was watching tv in my 6th floor condo at the entrance to Oyster Pond, Sint Marrten at about 10:30 PM. I heard the sound of rigging slapping and looked out to see a 51 ft Moorings charter boat drifting past bacwards towing a mooring ball. I called the Coast Guard, Captain Oliver's marina but the boat drifted slowly out until the wind caught it and pushed it onto the reef in front of the Oyster Bay Beach Resort. Then the fun began. The next morning thie coasties arrived with the Moorings crew who attached a stout line, pulled and pulled until the keel came off and the boat sunk. About a week late after being stripped of all removable weight and filled with airbags, it was floated off and taken to Phillipsburg for salvage and to be cut up as scrap. Its a shame, if done right, the boat could have been saved. If my dinghy had been in the water, we could have saved the boat opurselves. Some one in Boulder, CO is out one boat.We have a video of the whole circus for the insurance company.

[svHyLyte]

I hope those kids remember that what goes around, comes around--frequently in spades.

[markpj23]

Here's the post from Bahamas Chatter:

Recently a 50-foot sailing yacht was lost on the bar at the entrance to the channel into North Bimini. The captain and crew abandoned the vessel as it was being battered on the sandbar with breaking waves from a strong westerly and taking on water. Cruisers and locals who were ashore in Alice Town attempted to help out to no avail. Several spring-break college students from the College of Charleston arrived on the scene after the boat was abandoned and managed to attach towing lines and bring the boat to safe harbour. The students are claiming salvage rights and the owner is contesting the claim.

[Intentional Drifter]

"breaking waves from a strong westerly" -- It is probably rude of me to criticize the captain, but come on, folks -- look at a chart. In calm conditions, you need to have your wits about you and be able to read the water. While you've got 8 feet at low throughout, it is not wide and you've got to make turns, without any markers to help. If you've also got even 3 footers from the west, you won't be able to read the water and your depths in the troughs are going to be less than the draft on most 50-footers.

If you're heading to Bimini and encounter such conditions, then bail out! You do have a Plan B, don't you? In the case of Bimini, then you've got Gun Cay and Cat Cay as options and they aren't far. You'll have to get through a somewhat narrow cut into Cat, but it is do-able and then you've got a nice protected harbor and you can still check in. Not as cruiser-friendly as Bimini, but it will do.

As to the college kids -- seems to me that they earned some salvage rights. I would encourage them not to be too greedy about it, though.

ID

[TabbyCat]

Saw this cat that had just landed on the beach at Guadeloupe, at the entrance channel to Pointe a Pitre a couple of weeks ago. No one seemed to be interested in salvaging it though. It was still there when we left.

[Intentional Drifter]

Hi, Susan --

That looks like a pretty nice cat, though I don't recognize the type. I take it that they were not your clients?

Any idea how they came to be there? From the chart, it doesn't look like a tricky entrance.

ID

[FSMike]

Not sure, but I think it's an Edel cat.