The Anchorage From Hell

Date:
Position: Praía Do Farol, Cabo Frio - 22:59.92S
042:00.48W Cabo Frio ( As darkness fell, a number of fishing boats entered the bay and dropped anchor waiting for the tide to rise sufficiently to take their boats over the shallows to their harbour. Soon our secluded anchorage was like Newtown Creek on a bank holiday weekend. One boat anchored, I thought, unnecessarily close to us. Lightning was flickering all around us. Anticipating a very early start we turned in at about 2100. But after a couple of hours the DS called me to report a boat was rapidly approaching us. It was the fishing boat anchored close to us. The wind had gone round through 180 degrees and the wind had died to almost nothing – most of the time. About every 5 minutes, a catabatic wind – a williwaw – came screaming down the steep mountain in front of us and hit with the force of a runaway train – from 3 to 50 knots in half a second, lasted about a quarter of a minute, then calm again. In these conditions the boats were slewing around all over the place and this was causing the fishing boat to career towards us before being brought up short by his anchor rope. It was clear that a vicious cold front was passing over us and with cold fronts come rain. And rain it did – torrentially. If williwaw sledgehammers, tropical rainstorms and out of control fishing boats weren’t enough to cope with, a deep swell started to make its way into the anchorage. The boat started trying to roll its mast out. Probably swinging 35 degrees each way, down below it was like being in a washing machine. Trying to get some much-needed sleep ahead of our long passage the following day, the DS and I were doing impersonations of star fish – spread-eagled on the bed to stop ourselves from being tossed around like rag dolls. It didn’t make for a comfortable, relaxed night. By 0500 there was just enough light to make our way out, and without looking back, we left the loathsome anchorage to set off to fulfil the ambition of a lifetime – to sail my own yacht into the most spectacular harbour in the world – Rio de Janeiro! |