For most of the time he was under the boat a large nurse shark was on the bottom a few feet from him. A remora was attached to the shark’s back, cleaning it off. After awhile the shark flipped over on her back and the remora cleaned her belly! Later another shark joined the first one and at that point Mark thought of taking a picture so he came up to the swim ladder and called for me to bring him the GoPro camera. Sadly something he did spooked the sharks and they swam away before he could get a picture. Nurse sharks are not dangerous, in fact we watched people swimming with them at Compass Cay Marina a few weeks ago.
We will be back in Stuart at Sunset Bay Marina by the beginning of June. It’s time to start thinking about hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 through November 30. We spent some time on the phone this morning talking to facilities in Florida about getting our mast unstepped (taking down and removed from the boat) for hurricane season. Removing the mast and sails will enable us to go anywhere, including inland to Lake Okeechobee, to hide from hurricanes and tropical storms. With the mast on we are limited by bridges we can’t get under. We arranged with Mack Sails to remove the sails and rigging prior to a crane taking down the mast at Cracker Boy in Lake Worth/Riviera Beach, FL. Then the riggers from Mack Sails will bring our mast and sails to their facility in Stuart and store them for hurricane season. We will enter Florida in Lake Worth at the end of May, so this will be a convenient place to have the mast unstepped before we continue up the ICW for a short trip to Stuart and our summer/fall home at Sunset Bay Marina.
The cost for unstepping this mast, storing the mast and sails and stepping the mast again at the end of hurricane season is $2000. Checking with our insurance we found out that they will decrease our insurance by $2000 if we agree to go at least four miles inland during any named storm/hurricane warning. At first we asked about getting hauled out but the insurance company was more concerned that we go inland and wouldn’t give any reduction in premium for simply getting hauled out. So it’s a win/win for us. We will be able to move about without a mast to safer water inland and it won’t cost us anything extra to remove the mast and sails.
Last hurricane season was the first we spent in Florida and we were nervous every time a hurricane formed offshore. (When we stayed in Charleston for hurricane season our plan was to go up the Cooper River if a hurricane approached us.) We have named storm/hurricane coverage on our boat insurance, but there is a $22,500 deductible before they start to pay for any damages. Incidentally, this is why people who own boats hate when storms get names. That means any damage your boat receives from the storm with a name has a very high deductible. We all know how the weather people love to name storms!
The wind has clocked to the west and it has become uncomfortable to be anchored here in Big Majors, so we will probably move to Cambridge Cay tomorrow and wait a few days to cross to Eleuthera. We might not have Internet again until we get to Eleuthera.