The Bradleys Keep Grinding Away, Just 60 Feet More
Australian Castaways Endure Isolation the 21st Century Way...With Online Learning.
This story was originally published for paid subscribers on May 21, 2022. Earlier stories about the plight of the Anna Marie, left hard aground by Hurricane Dorian in August 2019, can be read by anyone regardless of subcription status by visiting the Loose Cannon website.
Concepts of “hill” and “hole” are more finely tuned when you are trying to drag a 44-ton motoryacht over terrain without benefit of heavy equipment. Since last we visited Geoff and Jenny Bradley 10 weeks ago, they have moved Anna Marie just 15 feet closer to the bay—an average of a foot and a half a week.
And Geoff Bradley says they are fine with that. “We’re out of the bog hole. We still have a little bit of rise to get over, which means out of the 15 feet we’ve moved, we’ve probably come up about a foot and a half,” he said.
The “bog hole” is a low lying area that tended to flood at high tide, particularly during spring tides, which are happening now. The Bradleys’ formula for re-launching their 89-foot Adventurer1 motoryacht is to attach four sets of truck wheels to the hull. By getting the rear wheels past the bog, the Bradleys are now able to keep working even when the area floods.
Out of the hole, the challenge now is to get over “a bit of a rise,” after which it’s downhill all the way into the turquoise waters of the Bight of Abaco. Anna Marie stands just 60 feet from the water, at which point the Bradleys will reconfigure their winch-and-pulley system as described in this story to move her into deep enough water to float.
The recurrence of an old back injury from Bradley’s construction days back in Australia is partly to blame for the lack of progress. He’s better now but had been sidelined for several weeks. The other factors were mechanical issues and miscalculations.
When last we spoke to Bradley, he was the proud purchaser of a pair of thousand-dollar air jacks from the States, confident they would accelerate an effort that has taken over 30 months so far. Alas, no. “The airbags weren’t a waste of a trip or a waste of money but they weren’t what we were hoping them to be,” he said. “What they’ve ended up being is good chalks…
“We’re jacking the boat up on these cheap air-over-hydraulic jacks, which are great. We were able to jack the whole back of he boat up by using two jacks under keel and using the airbags as a stabilizers. Try to just use jacks under the keel, and the boat will move so much that it will end up coming off.”
The Bradley’s have also obtained a load of heavy-duty construction lumber, which had to be floated over from the dinghy landing on Great Abaco. As they prepare each move, Bradley fills any dips in front of the wheels with rock then covers them with the lumber creating a smooth wooden path.
Bradley was asked what the couple does on those many days when they have been unable to work at moving the boat. They are on an isolated shore that can be reached only by dinghy. The only people they see are the occassional passing bonefishing guides and their clients.
Jenny Kelly is former hospital administrator. Bradley says she has kept busy managing their properties in Australia and continuing an education that already includes a Masters in Business. Through an Internet study program, she has become qualified to teach English online, and could do so from the boat if she chose to, Bradley said.
As for himself, he has devoted an hour or so a day learning Spanish online, for when a refloated Anna Marie cruises Cuba.
Besides their “educational time-out,” the couple spends a lot of time on video calls with their families back home. Bradley, 62, has six grandchildren.
All of which is testament to dramatic improvements in Bahamas Internet service over the past decade. Remote workers take note: You need not wait for the arrival of Starlink.
If you’re confused by the discrepancy in boat brands between this story and the initial story of March 9, which describes Anna Marie as a Chris Craft, don’t fret. The Bradleys had always assumed she was a Chris Craft, but a search using the vessel’s Hull Indentification Number and the Boat History online service revealed that she was in fact built by an obscure Florida company called Adventurer, possibly at Broward Marine Yachts. She started out as an 82-footer and, at some point, gained another seven feet because of a cockpit extension.
The Bradleys Keep Grinding Away, Just 60 Feet More
I am sure that is an early Broward built in Saugatuck Michigan.
Any updates? It's been a few weeks..