So it is day four and so far all is well. We gassed up last night as we pulled in and the guy at the marina gas dock was so cool he took our trash and let us leave the sailboat and run to the store for some bread and a few things we needed. Trina got to make her *must-stop* at the liquor store for some red wine and some whiskey in case it gets too cold it does take the edge off…LOL
We had anchored overnight and then we left at first light.
I had checked the weather and it said windy and rain. Wind gusts later in the afternoon to thirty knots, I was cool with that, it’s a sailboat nothing better than to turn that motor off and watch her go.
We were really happy with the way she handled the weather when it got super windy. We hit a few sevens and a few eight knots at times – I had no idea she could sail as fast and flat as she did.
It was an overcast day but it seems as though most perfect wind days here are. About half the way here it started to rain so I asked Trina to go down below and just watch the charts for obstructions and let me know if I get off course – no sense in us both getting wet. I had my foul weather gear on and when it finally stopped raining the wind switched for about five minutes and caused me to jibe the boat the wrong direction with a small knock down at the same time. So I was pulling ropes and trying to maintain as Trina came up to lend a hand. We got her back under control but by this time the wind and swells were beginning to crash over the boat. We rolled up the foresail and just used the main…
Trina asked if I had had enough for the day and we could head due west and hide in a small cove. I agreed I had enough. This was a great decision as the wind increased to thirty knots and the swells were breaking over the boat. One covered the whole boat as it went by. We had about two hours to go and we would be in safe harbor.
The hardest part was visibility, it was about a half mile so finding markers was difficult. As we made one of our last turns to starboard we dropped sails and started the motor.
The approach to this harbor was one I was glad to get into as the sun was setting because it looks as though you would beach the boat but you make a hard to port turn at last minute and then carefully follow the markers into the creek and then the marina, very shallow I might add, don’t miss it’s one foot deep on both sides and shoaling.
So we made it in and dropped anchor, we were not the only cruisers that came in so one was giving hand signals as to the best spot. I do love the camaraderie between sail-boaters. So we dropped anchor, I watched to make sure we were good as Trina started hot coffee and dinner. The water makes me Starvingly hungry!
It all looked great so we started to settle in but with the wind so strong we do what is called
“anchor watch”. I usually take late watch… Trina came and got me and said I think we drug anchor but she grabbed so we are ok don’t panic. I agreed we had slipped and we needed to pull the anchor and re drop it… Fun to do in thirty knots with gusts to whatever.
So we pulled up and went back and dropped the anchor and did it over again low and behold the damn thing just bounced across the bottom and didn’t grab and we were blown down back into the channel. So we pulled the anchor and pulled up into the wind in the right spot one more time, we were both frozen by now – we were in our jammies – I yelled “drop it and let it all go out as fast as you can and do twice the line we should have out.” Trina was a champ did exactly as I needed and the anchor just laid in place as we drifted away and then I said “cleat it off there is enough wind she is going to yank and pull us around so hold on”, sure enough it worked she didn’t drag a bit grabbed and pulled us around.
Usually one lays a six to one but I wasn’t doing this again so I did twelve to one on the line and I am so glad it blew so hard last night the boat was almost on it’s side at times when she swung around. Trina marked our spot on the GPS chart and used it to make sure we didn’t move and I took visuals of what was around us to make sure too. I got up a few times in the night and she had not moved a bit so we were both very happy campers – the heater going, full bellies, and knowing we were going to sleep in due to high winds the next day.
So at the time of this post we will be hanging out here today 11/11/11 and doing a few repairs from wind damage and will head out tomorrow at first light for the ICW. This is a nice place to be in a bad northwest it is out of the swell and with the sun shining it isn’t very cold unless you go out into the wind.
Wolfbernz
On the boat with no name!
Any Ideas what to name it? leave it in the comments.