Anchorage Antics

Here we are at Allen's Cay relaxing on deck and watching the boating activity around us. Various dingys bustling about from sailboats to shore, a big boat of tourists dropped off behind us on the other iguana island. People taking their kids and dogs back and forth to the beaches. Lots of folks seem to come up from the south (Highborne Cay?) in powerboats to see the iguanas.

About mid-afternoon a good sized boat anchored just off the beach and dropped off a good sized group of people, 8-10. Obviously there for sand, sun, sea and iguanas. There was quite a bit of wandering about checking out the iguanas and paddling in the water. Perfect afternoon for playing in the water (I know, I have the sunburn to prove it!).

Eventually these folks climbed back on the boat to head back to wherever they came from. The engines roared to life, there was much splashing of water off the back of the boat from the engines - and the boat didn't move an inch. Now this boat had not one, but two 225 horsepower engines on the back - a significant amount of power - more power than the V12 Jags. As we watched, the people on the boat moved to the back of the boat to try and push it forward. We couldn't believe it, but they were pushing right next to these roaring engines, think big rotating propellers. Then we watched them all get directly in front of the boat and attempt to pull it forward with a rope, and again the engines were going at full throttle. Luckily the boat didn't move at all. Can you imagine what would have happened if that boat had jerked forward at full throttle with all those people in front? Frightening!

Super Steve got into the dingy once it was clear they were well and truly stuck. High tide wasn't due until 3 a.m. so they potentially had a long wait and he wanted to make sure they had water, food, warm stuff, etc., if they had to wait out there that long. He spoke with the captain who said they had a cooler full of beer (the other people were pretty stand offish) and that someone was coming out to pull them off. The someone came out, took one look at the boat and made no attempt to do any such thing. He took the standoffish passengers away leaving the captain sitting forlornly on the side of his boat. The captain wandered about on the beach and in the water until a couple of fellows bearing a backpack arrived on the tender (dingy) to M/V Octopussy. It was a big tender which means big yacht (perhaps that was where the standoffish people came from?).

Sometime in the night the man and the boat disappeared. We wondered if the iguanas would eat him.

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