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Monday, February 12th, Captain Mike, Coral Jennings, Ollie Been and China Mike set out to bring the Beachcomber home to Salt Cay.   They left Caicos Marina in Provo at 8:00am expecting to be in Salt Cay by about 4:00pm.  As they left the shelter of the marina, the wind was blowing 35 to 50 miles per hour... what should have been an easy 6 hour trip through The Banks to South Caicos turned into a rough 9 hour trip. 

The Beachcomber approached Long Cay at 3:00pm. Captain Mike and the crew discussed taking the shortcut between Long Cay and South Caicos Island and decided to take the route, knowing that if they couldn't make it through the shallow sandbars there would add considerable time added to their trip to South Caicos dock.  Watching the depth sounder and keeping a lookout for coral heads they proceeded, hoping to cut an hour off their time.  A sailboat decided they looked like they knew what they were doing and followed them in. After about 1/2 an hour, they approached a local fishing boat. The fisherman waved furiously at them signaling them to turn back... they were in 4 feet of water and it was getting shallower. 
Bummed out at the time lost, tired and not looking forward to the rough passage around Long Cay, Captain Mike turned the boat around and headed on his new course.  As soon as the boat passed the south end of Long Cay the short chop swells increased to 10-12 feet with waves breaking over the bow.  Concerned that the bow door might not hold, Captain Mike and crew briefly considered turning around... there was no way to turn back without swamping the boat in the trough.  Having reached the point of no return... they pushed ahead.  As they descended one swell, the next loomed over the  bow looking like it would crash into the hold, but the Beachcomber rocked and rolled and climbed the next swell. Time and time again they rode through the sea. Coral sat on a bench seat hugging a plastic wrapped case of paper towels and bracing his legs against the bench seat opposite him while Ollie stood next to Capt'n Mike holding on to the handholds.  China Mike was on the stern wrapped  around the hand railings and weaving the docking buoys into a life ring, swearing that he would never make this trip again!