The Curtain Twitchers In Marsh Harbour, Or Fun & Games WIth Anchoring

Marsh Harbour on a calm day.

I reckon you’ve known a curtain twitcher or two in your lifetime. You know, that nosy old lady down the street who peers out from behind her heavy, brocade curtains to see what the neighbors are getting up to. Or your co-worker who peeks over the cubicle wall to see whether you’re watching cat videos on our computer instead of working on an accounting spreadsheet.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all probably got some curtain twitching tendencies. After all, who doesn’t want to know what everyone else is getting up to, especially if they’re trying to drop the hook in a crowded anchorage. Suddenly everyone comes out from down below because they just remembered that they have something really important to do on deck, like dusting off the water jerry cans or looking for tiny lizards hidden away in the anchor locker.

What they’re really doing is surreptitiously watching you to see if you can manage to anchor without making a fool out of yourself, scream at your partner or, worse yet, end up hitting their boat in the process.

Well, we sure put a show on for all of the curtain twitchers in Marsh Harbour the other day. I blame the weather. I should probably also blame my helming skills and my complete lack of upper body strength, but what’s the fun in that. I’d much rather pick on Mother Nature since she can’t fight back.

Oh, wait, maybe she can. That might explain the wretched weather we’ve been having. Retribution on her part of trying to pin the whole fiasco on her.

So here’s how it all went down:

1 – We sauntered into Marsh Harbour. {Can you saunter on a sailboat? I don’t know, but it sounds cools, so let’s stick with it.}

2 – The anchorage was crowded. We weren’t the first people to think about hiding out from the weather there.

3 – We picked out a spot to anchor. {It’s like picking a spot in a parking lot. Okay, not really. Cars generally stay put once you put them in park. Boats move around on their anchors. Moving objects can collide.}

4 – I pointed us into the wind us and tried to hold her steady. {This is where my hypothetical poor helming skills come in. It wasn’t easy.}

5 – The wind was gusting up to 30 knots. {See, I told you Mother Nature was to blame.}

6 – The wind kept pushing us back and we couldn’t get a bite on our anchor in that particular spot.

7 – Cue the dreaded dragging. {This isn’t like drag queens or anything. This is more like when you park your car but leave it in reverse and it starts to roll backwards causing pedestrians to scatter out of your way.}

8 – I still had problems trying to helm the boat in the wind.

9 – Someone came up with a really clever idea. It might have been me. Let’s send Ellen forward to pull up the anchor.

10 – Did I mention that we don’t have a windlass? It’s broken. That means I had to lift our 44 lb Rocna anchor plus all of the chain from the bottom. In very windy conditions. With a decided lack of upper body strength.

11 – I couldn’t do it.

12 – How depressing.

13 – By this point the curtain twitchers gave up all pretense of pretending to be busy on deck. They were all sitting down, eating popcorn and drinking beer while pointing and laughing at me.

14 – Scott had to come up to the bow while I went back to helm the boat. Good times.

15 – He has superior biceps. I’m in awe of his upper body strength.

16 – We found a new spot to anchor and some new curtain twitchers to watch the second act of our comedy show.

17 – Success! Anchor down! Anchor dug in! No dragging! Drinks all around!


Cruising Log – Thursday, 6 April 2017 – Saturday, 8 April 2017

6 APRIL
Engine on at 8:45 AM at Cave Cay, underway at 9:00 AM and headed towards the Whale Cay passage at slack tide. Had 30 knot gusts, but going through the cut was fine. Put headsail up at 11:00 AM. Continued to be very gusty with a lot of current at Marsh Habour which made anchoring interesting. Anchor finally down at 2:15 PM. Tickety Boo handled the conditions well. Nautical Miles = 25. Engine = 3 hrs 15 mins. Spending = Nil.

7 APRIL
Went into town to get rid of trash (how did we accumulate so much?), find the BTC office, do some grocery shopping at Maxwell’s and Price Right, search for butane cartridges (found some but at $8 a cartridge, no thanks) and scope out where to refill our propane tank. Along the way we stumbled across a bakery and scored some coconut bread for only $4. Got back to the boat, ignored each other while we reveled in having internet access again. Nautical Miles = Nil. Engine = Nil. Spending = $78.12 ($54 BTC SIM card/data plan and $14.12 groceries)

8 APRIL
Made coconut French toast for breakfast. Anchor up at 9:30 AM in Marsh Harbour to head out for a day sail and snorkeling. Practiced my helming and anchoring skills. Snorkled off of Matt Lowe’s Cay. Saw a HUGE ray and lots of fish. Found a children’s life vest floating in the water. Anchor back down at Marsh Harbour around 3:30 PM. Topped up the diesel tank from our jerry cans. Nautical Miles = 14. Engine = 3 hrs 30 mins. Spending = Nil

Do you know any curtain twitchers? Do you have any curtain twitching tendencies yourselves? Any anchoring horror stories to share?

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