Almost halfway there! The long lost Part 2
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 16 Nov 2007 19:32
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30:13.119N 68:07.753W
At long last, what you have all been waiting
for....the rest of the story regarding our one night of bad weather (Thursday,
11/15) as we approached the halfway point on our way to St.
Thomas...
Ok, back to the story. So as the wind
increased and Don slept (because he has the undesirable 2am-6am
shift), Bill and I reduced sail area. First the main came in,
then the head sail was reefed [non-boater translation: partially
rolled in], and reefed again, then the mizzen sail was reefed, then the head
sail again, then the mizzen again, head sail again, then the mizzen came in
entirely, leaving only a scrap of head sail out. At midnight, an
exhausted Bill went to bed (two hours past the end of his official shift - he
stayed on to help me out). I suffered another half hour or so and finally
gave it up when about seven rain storms popped up on the radar screen. I
trotted down into the rocking cabin from hell and weaved into the back
cabin to get Don who wasn't due for his shift until 2am. No sooner
did I say, 'Don!', when the non-sleeping Don popped up out of the bed and
trotted up into the cockpit. The conditions were so nasty by this time and
everyone was so tired that Don decided to pack it in and give it up for the
night. We brought in the scrap of head sail that was out, and deployed the
drogue [non-boater translation: a form of sea anchor, our drogue
consists of a very long, large diameter rope, with 276 small parachute-like
cones tied onto it and a small anchor to weigh down the end of it. Some of
you may remember seeing this drogue in various stages of completion laying
around in our house.] We turned the boat so it was headed downwind,
which at that time was due north, and sent the drogue overboard so it would
trail off the back of the boat and keep us oriented with our stern to the
wind. At this point, it was 2:30am, so we went below and I attempted to
sleep while Don kept watch over our northerly drifting boat .
To give you a feel for what it was like to attempt
to sleep in a boat with drogue deployed in 30+ knots of wind (the wind
eventually topped out at 40 knots) and lots of waves, I'll describe the flying
fruit basket. We keep a basket of fruit on the kitchen counter at all
times and even when the boat rocks fairly violently, the fruit is happy and
content as it sits undisturbed in its basket. Last night however, waves
caught us on our side several times, sending all kinds of stuff flying as we
rocked about 45 degrees first one way, then the other, many times over.
The mostly ripe pears in the basket took a leap off the kitchen counter and
splattered their guts all over the living area settee and rug. Pear guts
everywhere. Ugh. Although none of us really got any
sleep, I am happy to report that none of us splattered our guts
anywhere.
To add to all the fray, at some point in the night,
Don checked our electronic chart to see how far we were drifting north and
noticed that a freighter was showing on the chart moving in a direction that put
us directly in their path. At this point, the freighter was about 25 miles
away. Don got on the radio, called the ship and very calmly but firmly
described the situation and asked the freighter to alter course since we had no
way of doing so ourselves. After a little bit of back and forth, the
ship turned to starboard and missed us by a little more than a mile.
Shew! The software that allows us to see where a freighter is located,
what their vessel name is, what speed and direction they are moving in, etc. is
something we bought at the Annapolis boat show this year. It was an
expense we hadn't planned on and we were reluctant to spend the money. We
finally decided it could be a birthday present for Don, so we bought it.
We figure it paid for itself about a hundred times over last
night. Don would have seen the ship on radar, but he wouldn't have
known whether or not it was a freighter, what its name was or how fast it
was moving and in what direction. When all of this happened we
were at least 400 miles away from land in any direction - strange that two ships
can pass so closely in the night in such a remote place.
When dawn arrived, the wind was still very high,
but had shifted to the north. So all three of us pulled the drogue back
aboard, pointed the boat downwind and have been sailing southeast at a nice pace
surfing down the waves ever since. 30+ knots of wind speed when sailing
downwind is really no big deal at all, and even with the waves, quite
pleasant. Pictured below are the 10-12 foot waves following us as we
head south. The good news is that we should be done with low pressure
systems, high winds and nasty weather for a while if not for the rest of
the trip. The two weather advisors we listen to both indicated that it
should be smooth sailing for us from here on.
So that's our story. It was ugly, but at no
point were any one of us afraid. The situation never out of control and
the boat was always in a safe position. If not anything else, it was very
good experience for us and also gave us a story to tell. Besides, what's a
sailing adventure without a story to tell?
Anne |
