Aussie Couple 'Skates' Grounded Yacht to Water's Edge (Video)

'Anna Marie's' Swim Platform Now at High-Water Mark, Great Abaco

​More than three years since Hurricane Dorian deposited Anna Marie on land—and more than two years since they began their recovery effort in earnest—Geoff Bradley and Jenny Kelly have winched themselves to the water’s edge.

If you’re new to Loose Cannon, this is just the latest about a remarkable couple toiling in isolation to rescue their boat. Scroll to the bottom for links to earlier installments, including photos and videos.

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After delays due to health issues and “blowing anchor points,” the ever persistent Australian couple stuck on Abaco since Hurricane Dorian in 2019, has rigged a new system to winch their 89-foot motor yacht ever closer to flotation, and they’ve reached the water.

“We’re starting to move again. Long break because I had meniscus knee problems…We’re on top of the hump, and we’re heading downhill,” Geoff Bradley said, referring to slight rise at the edge of the beach that had bedeviled them.

View from the Boat

For the past couple years Bradley and Jenny Kelly have inched Anna Marie toward the water stern-first. Their system was a set of dollies attached to the sides of the boat and a 30-ton winch, pulling dyneema line through blocks from anchor points in the direction of travel.

Down to only four of the original 12 dollies, they are now using industrial “skates” to coax the 44-ton vessel seaward, as shown in the video below. Now the remaining dollies are mainly used to keep the vessel upright with skates under her keel.

“All of a sudden, we fixed a few problems on the boat got our anchor points better. In the last week and a half, we’ve probably moved five or six feet. The new skates we put under the keel are definitely working,” Bradley said.

Jokingly asked if they had any plans for St. Patrick’s Day, Bradley surprised with a maybe. He talked about social ties they have developed with a group of Canadian and American homeowners in a nearby housing development. And he revealed a fun fact:

Jenny Kelly is a descendant of hanged outlaw and Australian folk hero Ned Kelly,

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who himself was the son of a convict transported from Tipperary, a county in Ireland. Dad had been arrested for stealing a pair of pigs.

It doesn’t get any more Irish than that.

Anna Marie’s Location on Great Abaco

Previous Stories in Chronological Order

29 Months After Hurricane, Grounded Yacht Inches Seaward (Video), March 9, 2022

Following in the Wake of Archimedes, March 15, 2022

The Bradleys Keep Grinding Away, Just 60 Feet More, May 21, 2022

Grounded Yacht: Insight and Progress Captured on Video, July 3, 2022

Aussie Pair Readies for Another Push To Relaunch Grounded Motoryacht, October 26, 2022

On Fourth Christmas Aground, Abaco Castaways Look To Eventful New Year (Video), December 24, 2023.

1. Quoth the Wiki: Edward Kelly (December 1854-11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police…

In the century after his death by hanging, Kelly became a cultural icon, inspiring numerous works in the arts and popular culture, and is the subject of more biographies than any other Australian. Kelly continues to cause division in his homeland: some celebrate him as Australia's equivalent of Robin Hood, while others regard him as a murderous villain undeserving of his folk hero status. Journalist Martin Flanagan wrote: "What makes Ned a legend is not that everyone sees him the same—it's that everyone sees him. Like a bushfire on the horizon casting its red glow into the night."