Day 125- Day We Caught a Crab Pot

Day 125- The Day Caribbean Soul Caught the Crab Pot

Monday, April 6, 2009
Once again, the weather caused us to leave one anchorage and head for another with better wind protection. Our friends from Beaufort aboard Three Belles—Carl and Reva—had left Governors Harbour a couple of days ago returning to their “home” mooring in Hatchet Bay Pond farther north on Eleuthera Island. We lingered in Governors Harbour as long as we could, then headed out to the safe harbour of Hatchet Bay Pond and the settlement of Alice Town.
There was a brisk wind and a mild chop on the Eleuthera Banks—just right for a very enjoyable and short sail up to Hatchet Bay. Then the crab pot thing happened!
Yikes! We had never seen crab pots set out in deep water, but there they were in 30 feet of water strung from Governors Harbour to Hatchet Bay. Both of us watched for and dodged around the pots as each one had at least 30 feet of line that could get foaled around our propeller. Somehow, we must have missed one (Penny as probably steering) because as we approached Hatchet Bay, John noticed a long crab pot line trailing behind our boat. We were sailing and had not started the engine, so we weren’t in big trouble yet. However, the line had to come off the propeller before we could start the engine to go through the narrow, rocky cut into Hatchet Bay Pond.
Well, we should have made a movie what happened next! Capt. John said, “Turn’er into the wind and sail into the shallow water near the beach so we can drop anchor.” This seemed like a major challenge to Penny who had never anchored under sail (remember that we could not turn on the engine). Capt. John, however, crawled out onto the bow and dropped the anchor 20 feet of water—no problem. Then—and this is what we need the movie of—John put on his snorkel gear and leapt overboard! Yikes! Just like those old Sea Hunt TV shows—Mike Nelson to the rescue! The waves were steep 4-footers and Caribbean Soul was jumping up and down tugging at her anchor. Our Sea Hunt hero—John—dove down under this leaping boat and grabbed the crab pot line. Luckily, he didn’t have to cut it—it just pulled right off! You really had to see this to feel the drama of it all.
Our friends, Carl and Reva, were watching this strangeness from shore. Without the aid of binoculars, they weren’t sure what we were doing, but they were sure that we were in some kind of trouble. Carl tried to radio us several time, but we were so busy we did not hear the radio calls.
Once the line was removed, John climbed back on board; we started the engine and struggled to get the anchor up. After that, it was an easy 10 minute motor through the narrow cut into the protected waters of Hatchet Bay Pond.
Sorry, there are no pictures in this blog entry, but the next entry will be filled with lots of pictures of Hatchet Bay Pond and Alice Town Settlement.