On 4/22/15 1:58 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/22/2015 1:41 PM, Califbill wrote:
John H. wrote:
On Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:59:12 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Apr 2015 16:51:49 -0400, John H.
wrote:

At the time, 1964, I was working for the US Coast and Geodetic
Survey, doing survey
work for the Atlantic Missile Range in the Bahamas. We had finished
the construction
of two 116' steel surveying towers on St Georges Island, just off
Spanish Wells,
Eleuthera. The goal was to survey and measure distance to Hole in
the Wall on Abaco.

We left Spanish Wells on a nice day in a 35' former tourist boat
used for viewing the
bottom in one of the 'springs' in Florida (Silver Springs?, not
sure). Anyway, the
boat had a glass bottom. The trip across the channel was pretty
uneventful, but as we
approached Hole in the Wall, wind and rain seemed to come out of
nowhere, and we ran
into some big waves. Somehow, the rope pulling the Whaler
(privately owned by the guy
who owned the boat we chartered) got caught on one of the oarlocks
and started
pulling the Whaler sideways. There was nothing we could do but
watch the damn thing
fill with water. Soon the drag broke the tow rope and the Whaler
was history.

We kept trying to get around the south end of the damn rock, but
whenever we
approached, the waves would drive us back. We had carried an extra
55gal drum of
fuel, but we'd already been tapping that, so we had to give up on
the idea of getting
around the rock and putting in.

I might mention here that 'Rooster', our 'captain' had no charts on
the boat. It
turned out the only food he had was a couple cans of corned beef,
some onions and
some bread.

Anyway, we headed north close by the east edge of the island.
Eventually we spotted
some houses and a small 'harbor' so we decided to put in there. I
believe, looking at
the map, that was 'Crossing Rocks'.

As we headed in, I was in the bow and happened to look into the
water. I screamed. We
were passing over coral heads that appeared to be only a foot below
the surface.
Rooster got the boat stopped, and we started slowly working our way
around and
inbetween these things. I was scared ****less, along with the other
five guys on
board.

We made it into the 'harbor', the other side of the rocks which
formed a small
barrier, and dropped our anchor. Rooster backed the boat to set the
anchor, and the
anchor rode broke. Yup. No anchor. Luckily a couple of the guys on
the beach saw what
happened and came out to offer assistance. For a sum (don't
remember the amount) they
would retrieve our anchor for us. We took up a collection, paid
them, they got out a
glass-bottomed pail, and retrieved the anchor.

We spent the night there. The folks told us they'd never seen a
boat come in that
way. They were surprised we made it. So was I.

The next day we took off working our way further up the island. We
got to a nice bay
before we ran totally out of fuel, and anchored again. We'd eaten
the canned corn
beef the day before, so we were out of food. The folks at the last
stop had used up
our money getting the anchor, so we couldn't pay for anything from
them. There was no
grocery store there anyway.

Rooster took off, worked his way to the highway, and hitchhiked to
Marsh Harbor. Once
there he called the boat owner who flew to Marsh Harbor, picked up
Rooster, and flew
down the coast to find us. He had a twin-engined Cessna of some
sort. (Don't even ask
me how he steered it!). He flew over us a couple times, wagging the
wings, and a few
hours later we got picked up by a van. We drove to Marsh Harbor,
boarded his
airplane, and flew back to Eleuthra.

Yup, that was quite a trip. Later we went back to Marsh Harbor with
a bigger boat (a
converted WW2 PT boat). We trucked our way down to Hole in the Wall
and put up our
towers.

End of story. We didn't have any bait, so couldn't even do any
fishing while waiting!

===

Good story John, thanks. Aids to navigation are few and far between
in the Bahamas but thanks to GPS technology, better charts and very
clear water it is now fairly easy to navigate. Too bad about the
Whaler but at least no one was in it when it went down.

Yeah, the Whaler was a fun toy to play with after work. We did a lot
of snorkeling
while hanging on to the stern of the Whaler. Not the safest thing in
the world, but
hell, we were young!



They are unsinkable. Probably recovered 20 miles away and still in use.
Guy here lost his whaler when it flipped. To many guys in a corner and
hooked to crab pot. Found 10 miles south, 2 weeks later.


I don't know about "unsinkable". Older Whalers are prone to water
absorption in the foam between the hull and deck. It can become
saturated with water over time and in worst cases can sink.




There used to be tales on real boating discussion groups in which owners
of older Whalers would describe the results they got on trailer weighing
truck scales, results that indicated their boats weighed at least twice
as much as the factory specified.