Weekend of June 10th and I promise this is a good read.
Kirk is really interested in finding the unspoiled islands that are more remote and quiet as opposed to all of the popular cruising spots. As such, he wanted to check out Brewers Bay.
So we get to Brewers Bay right before lunch on a Friday. We cruised into this amazing anchorage that had a fairly large reef in the middle so necessary to navigate your entry accordingly and anchor either to the far right or the far left. We chose the far left if facing the anchorage and managed to navigate the reefs with no issues. Kirk felt that our location would be the best choice for protection from rolling and winds. So that’s cool. On the opposite side of the anchorage is a cute little beach bar that you had to dinghy to and we were looking forward to lunch and taking in the majestic beauty of this less frequented anchorage.
After a great lunch, I wanted to check email even though I had taken the day off of work to stay connected due to a fairly large deal that I was working on that needed a lot of care and feeding. Having said that, I packed my laptop and my phone and notebook in my dry bag and I jumped on email for a bit. Then we packed it up and headed to the dinghy to go back to Salted Rim. Notice I said “dry” bag.
The dinghy was beached as there are no dinghy docks for this anchorage. We threw our gear in the dinghy, faced the dinghy outward to the anchorage away from the shore and I hopped in and Kirk hopped in and attempted to start the engine. We have done this a hundred times.
But, before Kirk could get the engine started, some serious waves were crashing in and turned our dinghy sideways and then our dinghy was swamped with water – as in the dinghy was full of water but in that instant,
Kirk was thrown out of the dinghy on one side and I was thrown out of the dinghy on the other side. My visor went flying and my favorite RayBans went flying. Fortunately we were only waist high in water but it was a rather violent toss. And if you know me, I don’t like to get my hair wet (nod to Elizabeth). Kirk and I were not only drenched but also taken aback about what happened. Lost visor and sunglasses and Kirk’s knee was not feeling it’s best.
So we pulled the dinghy back on the beach, which was like pulling a tractor with a rope in your teeth since it was full of water. Kirk is trying to bail the water with his bare hands and I am using a plastic Soggy Dollar cup the size of a thimble. We finally collect ourselves and get as much of the sea water out of the dinghy as we could. Wow, that was crazy and weird as it happened so, so fast.
We reposition the dinghy and I hop back in as does Kirk and the outboard motor would not start and before we knew it – the same exact thing happened again and this time even more turbulent. Kirk went under the dinghy on his side and I flipped out again on my side and lost my visor again after I had found it. But that’s nothing because Kirk bruised his ribs and I had a bruise pop up on my fore arm the size of a pack of trident gum. We are both looking at each other like what the heck.
Rinse and Repeat. We bailed and we bailed and we bailed and finally we were able to pull the dinghy to the beach. Outboard was not cooperating. Kirk decided that we needed to walk the dinghy in the water along the semi circle of the anchorage all the way around to the side of the Salted Rim. He led the way, pulling the dinghy and my job was to keep the dinghy straight or a better way of saying it – not let it go into the shore but keeping it parallel to the shore. This was not the easiest task when you think about all of the waves rolling in as we walked the shoreline waist deep. PHEW
We got about 2/3’s of the way to find a huge reef in our way where the dinghy would not pass through. We corralled the dinghy and brought her to shore and tied her off on a rock. Kirk then walked the rest of the shoreline until he was diagonal from our Sailboat and would swim to the boat and get our SUP board. The swim would be just over ¼ mile. He found a deserted section of a SUP board and decided to take that with him to use as a flotation device just in case he needed it. And he did use it at times. My job was to keep an eye out for him to be sure that he made it to the sailboat. All I kept thinking is what the heck am I going to do so far away. I just stayed with the dinghy and made sure the waves that kept creeping up on the shore did not take the dinghy with them.
SO now you are wondering did he make to the sailboat – well of course he did – I had all the confidence in the world. Exhausted but now Kirk then had to deploy the SUP board, grab the oars, grab some waters and then Paddle Board that ¼ of a mile back to shore to gather Lisa and the Dinghy.
At a far distance, I saw that he was on his way back. In the meantime, since I had some free time on my hands and I knew that he had made it to the sailboat, I proceeded to make a seaweed sign by gathering pieces of seaweed along the shore. My welcome back sign said “Go Kirk!” – just my little contribution to the situation.
While we were waiting, a catamaran had anchored not too far from us at the anchorage. Seemed that they saw Kirk swimming – perhaps they assumed he was exercising. And then they saw him Paddle Boarding.
So by the time Kirk reached me and we tied the SUP Board to the back of the dinghy. We jumped in quite cautiously, I must say, and then we started paddling (against the incoming tide). It was like riding a bike with no speeds up a steep mountain. But low and behold, the Catamaran couple came in their dinghy to help us just as we were about ½ way back to the sailboat. Nice comrades and we appreciated the zippy ride back.
When we got back on the Salted Rim, and Kirk completed his mini ironman event, we were thoroughly exhausted. OOOPS. Did I say WE. Well Kirk was thoroughly exhausted and I was, I guess, tired. But we were both beat up for sure. We took hot showers and made some grub and drank some wine and I think we were in bed by 8PM.
The next day we recalled, play by play, all of the harrowing experience and realized what we could have done differently. AND then I remembered about the dry bag that wasn’t exactly dry. A bit of moisture managed to infiltrate and well, I had some issues to deal with. But that will have to wait until we get back to Nanny Cay.
Then we thought, let’s salvage the weekend and go on to Cane Garden Bay. Well, slight problem – no dinghy and we have no way to get to shore and we had limited provisions.
Oh well, back to Nanny Cay and rest by the pool. God knows we needed that !