Friday, 2 October 2015

93. Joaquin

George Town Rum Shop

I kept tracking my post online, and saw this message from Parcel Force: my police form couldn’t be delivered (to Diver’s Supply, because the envelope was too big to fit in their post box), so it would be returned to the UK. I quickly went to George Town post office, who sent me to Seven Mile post office. It turns out Seven Mile post office was in West Shore Plaza – the same as Diver’s Supply. Actually they shared the same building – the post office was literally two doors down.


After checking and double checking, I will definitely have to leave the island for a few days while the permit is processed – probably sometime next week. I think I will go to Jamaica – fly to Montego Bay and stay in a cheap guesthouse in Negril for a couple of nights. I went to a cafĂ© with Wi-Fi (and a plug socket) and checked flights and hotels. I also checked the weather and quickly decided to go back to the boat – and was just in the nick of time.


Seemingly out of nowhere hurricane Joaquin pops up. When I checked passage weather there was a huge red blob just on the other side of Cuba, over the Bahamas. This afternoon it brought fairly strong winds, but coming from the West – the opposite of the usual trade winds. My anchor chain flipped round 180 degrees, not good. Sure enough I slowly started to drag. This time I was drifting towards rocks, and an expensive motor yacht. And this time my engine wasn’t working.

I quickly got my spare anchor and jumped in the dinghy. I dropped it about 50 feet away, led the rode back to Sonic Boom, jumped aboard and pulled it tight. Luckily it held really well and I sat in the middle of the channel to the marina in everybody’s way. I managed to get a tow to the dock and tied up, minutes before the winds kicked up to 20 knots, with very heavy rain and lots of lightening. Another very lucky escape.



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