Cruising World - May 2016

30

may 2016

cruisingworld.com

NIGHTMARE ON THE

EXUMA BANK

G

et the ditch bag. If worse comes

to worst, we will get of the

boat, but not until it hits the

rocks,” Liz Kennell recalls her husband,

Bob, shouting over the 60-knot winds

that had plucked their anchor from the

sandy bottom, and which were now toss-

ing Arapesh, their Beneteau 411, toward a

limestone-fringed cut near Fowl Cay, in

the Bahamas’ Exuma Cays.

It was January 6, 2016. Months before,

the recently retired Canadian couple

had joined the annual migration of cruis-

ers hoping to trade a winter in the north

for the warmth of the Exumas. Like the

Kennells, many of those same cruisers

— spread out along the 130-mile-long

Bahamian island chain — were now in full

survival mode.

Kathy Barth, a Seven Seas Cruising

Association commodore, and her hus-

band, Curt, were anchored of Pig Beach

at Big Major’s Spot when the powerful sys-

tem overtook them. “In all our years of

cruising, we’ve never seen anything like it,”

Kathy says.

For Ken Pimentel, the fi rst sign came

at about 1600, in the form of a cloud bank

with “structure” looming over his eve-

ning anchorage at Norman’s Cay, in the

northern Exumas. Aboard the Leopard 40

Dream Catcher, he and his wife, Beth, and

their 12-year-old daughter, Jeanette, had

sailed up earlier in the day to meet friends.

Norman’s is a popular stop among cruisers

for its beautiful scenery and the nearly all-

around protection of the inner anchorage

— a rarity in the low-lying Exumas.

Early that morning, Ken had listened

to the synopsis delivered by Chris Parker

during the weather router’s SSB broadcast:

possible squalls, some that could be strong.

Even in the fairly protected anchorage

at Norman’s Cay, the powerful winds

kicked up a chop, and several boats

dragged anchor. KEN PIMENTEL

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