Extracts from
The Voyage of the
big
ez
Annapolis to Virgin Gorda and back
Tales of a 42' powerboat in early 2005 part 1
Prologue
the big
ez is a 42' power boat built in Annapolis, Maryland, USA by Belkov Yacht Carpentry in 2001. Because she is based on the Maine fishing boats of the 1930's, Hinkley who have a similar looking boat tried to sue Belkov and a few other companies for copying their design. Hinkley lost the suit but it effectively stopped Belkov from producing any further boats for several years. Hence the big ez ’s relative uniqueness.I had the privilege of being her captain for three years, based in the Chesapeake Bay, and in that time we took the boat far and wide well beyond her normal or designed cruising grounds. In 2004 it was decided to give her some offshore capability. These modifications included a fixed bimini, an extended swim platform, so too take a dinghy, additional freezer space, a table for the saloon that could be put up to expand the galley, new cushions in the cockpit so allowing for sleeping, liferaft stowage, a revamped navigation system and onboard computer with wide screen below, and a satellite phone with email capability. Some of this equipment worked as designed and others didn’t survive the first trip down to Florida, and remained unrepaired. Not through the lack of trying.
The original plan was to go to the Bahamas, but at the last minute the cruise was switched to the Virgin Islands based out of St John. There were six deliveries, and three cruises, Annapolis to West Palm Beach, WPB to Nassau, Cruise to Harbour Island, Nassau to WPB, WPB to St Juan Puerto Rico, Cruise St Juan to BVI, cruise of British Virgin Islands, BVI and USVI this section is from the third cruise, the main one and is page 10 of the full story.
A Day at the Beach
Tuesday Day 3 of the cruise, the goal was to find a beach and go ashore, so my idea was to go to Sandy Cay off Jost van Dyke It is one of the most photographed desert islands, it looks idyllic. This required a working dinghy, so a call to Mike on Zanadu and he took it away to see if he could persuade it to work. He managed to, but could not give me a reason as to why it had stopped. It was new 4 stroke 15 hp Mecury outboard. Every body had been told to bring their passports and I received a motley collection of drivers licenses, passports and a birth certificate. It is the captains duty to have all these documents in his possession before entering the foreign waters. So we motored across to the Great Harbour in Jost Van Dyke anchored, and John, Bobby and I went ashore. Apart from the fact that there were three other yachts clearing in and a cruise yacht with thirty passengers clearing out. The physical effort of writing down every bodies name, passport, address, date of birth issue etc, twice, for 12 people takes time. The customs lady gave me short shift when I explained that three passengers had only driving licences. “Driving licences are not travel documents, and YOU know that” she was right but didn’t press the point she ushered me through to Immigration and coolly asked for $93. The immigration lady was very nice about it and only wanted $18. But told me to make sure the driving licence people had birth certificates in future. The moral is though if you leave the US mainland have a passport even if it is out of date such as Aynsely’s.
So shaken, but not stirred I wandered down the jetty to find a hot and tired Bobby and John it had taken all of a hour and fifteen minutes. Had that been the West End we would still be there. So with the dinghy in tow we motored slowly over to Sandy Cay. Aynsley served lunch as we went. I approached the south side of the cay and went into about 10 feet of water and dropped the hook. Once happy with that, I turned my attention to the dinghy and passengers, Bobby, Leno and John all disappeared over the transom and started to swim to the island. Anthony tried to stop them until the dinghy was started. I started the dinghy and in the meantime Tony (80 years old) and his wife Maria, and Johns wife Mary all jumped in and started to swim ashore.
What happened next I am not too sure, but Bobby started to jump up and down on the shore waving, so I started the dinghy and motored over towards the shore thinking that if anyone was in trouble it was Tony cos he was still in the water. John, Bobby and Leno were ashore. I hadn’t seen John being rolled in the surf and this was the problem, John had collapsed in the surf on landing. As I approached Tony still swimming strongly he said he was fine, carry on ashore to Bobby. I beached the dinghy and asked Bobby what the trouble was. He pointed to John who was sitting on the beach. pale sort of out of breath but saying he was fine and just out of reach of the surf. His wife Mary landed ashore at this stage and talked to him. So I launched the dinghy and went back to the boat, and explained to everybody what I had learned from Bobby. So I took two umbrellas and a few bottles of water and went back to the cay. As I beached the dingy I heard on my portable radio VHF Anthony calling the coastguard. This I thought was a bit over the top, within minutes a large grey Atlantic 21 appeared from over the horizon and a smaller BVI dive boat.
The BVI boat discharged a wet suited figure who immediately took over John. The grey boat with Park Service written on the side tried to beach but couldn’t. I tried to assist but he waved me away, then the BVI guy asked for oxygen, the park boat passed a large black case off his bow that I handed to the other guy. They started to administer oxygen and had John sitting up against a rubber dinghy just out of the surf, at this stage a powerful red Atlantic 21 appeared out of the blue and two guys jumped out and raced up the beach with a large suitcase. This was the BVI rescue service, VISAR. They checked John’s pulse and strapped a cardiographic bandage to his arm and took readings. After ten minutes of this they decided that he was OK and cancelled the ambulance they had waiting at the West End. All this time his wife Mary was cool as a cucumber, I was told later that she was a nurse so understood all this commotion.
They asked John to stand up which he did with a little difficulty and he then nearly collapsed and started to cough up sea water. They went into full emergency and laid him down, got out a defibulator and administered him its electric shock treatment, mindful of the water that occasionally washed up to his feet!!! So second change of plan, could I carry him lying down in the big
ez , yes, but only at 25 knts. They pointed out that the US Park Service boat could do 50 knts if he was agreeable to operating in BVI territory. The Park Ranger said he was, so John and Mary (his wife) were embarked on the Park service boat and went post haste to the West End and I ferried the rest back to the big ez and we followed and went on to Road Town and tied up in Wickhams Cay.Anthony and Bobby went off to go to the hospital, the rest went shopping, so I took the opportunity to fill our water tank, and wash down the boat. At about 6 o’clock Anthony, Bobby and John and Mary returned to the boat, and we had an impromptu sunset cruise. Marred by the fact that the crackers were all broken, they had not survived the passage down from West Palm Beach! But the radar imposed on the chart, with night vision settings and the new dimmer on the engine panel lights were a great success, the run back to Cruz Bay was as easy as on open yacht cockpit, no reflection or glare. We tied up to the customs dock at about 20.30 and Anthony Michelle and the guests disembarked with a request to return to clear immigration the next morning. Anys and I went for a well earned dinner at the Tage restaurant, a tad expensive! We finished up in the Irish Bar because the Dominican bar was closed, we found out why, on the balcony of the Irish bar were two of the Dominican bar girls. So ended day 3.
Pintal is the nom de plume that has been writing articles about sailing and politics of sailing since the early ‘80's. Sea time includes some 60,000 miles offshore, racing, delivery and cruising in the waters of Ireland, England, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Mediterranean, Newfoundland, Great Lakes, Vancouver Island, East Coast United States, Gulf Coast, Bahamas, Bermuda and the Caribbean.
