Yesterday was another day for the YAUP (Yet Another Ugly Passage) experience. I decided to invent an acronym so that I won’t tire my hands typing it out in every blog since it is the pattern of this cruising season so far. I kind of feel like that old movie Groundhog Day, except our version involves bashing into high seas and getting broached by big waves. For you non-boaters, broach is not jewelry, it means that water that should be outside the boat is in the boat.
Yesterday, which seems so far away already, was truly YAUP. If I wanted to be underwater, I would have bought a submarine – but I’m getting ahead of myself here.
We left Ft Pierce planning to sail down the coast and when the wind changed per predictions, turn left and head across the Gulf Stream to the Berry Islands in the Bahamas. It sounded so simple. I’m sure you won’t be surprised that the weather was not so accurate and the inaccuracy was not favorable to our plans.
As soon as we came out of Ft Pierce we sensed things were not as we thought they would be. We had already reefed the sails anticipating some heavy weather at the start of our trip, but the seas were a bit of a surprise – these were big waves! We were sure, however, that they would calm themselves since the weather models and forecasts are so accurate - Not!
Once through the Ft Pierce inlet, however, there was literally no turning back since trying to turn around in those conditions would require some very tricky timing and a bit of luck or maybe cause some flooding and damage. Any anyway, Mary Beth assured me that conditions would ease soon. I’ve now decided that her understanding of “soon” is much different than mine.
The wind speed and wave height increased as time went on and we “shortened sail” to keep from being overpowered. We and Riggs endured the discomfort and waited for the promised “easing”. Riggs clearly is not prone to sea sickness which is a blessing. He just sort of hunkers down out of the wind and wet.
Before we finally decided to change our plans and save the Gulf Stream crossing for later, we were surprised by some very large waves that broke over our bimini (the cover over the cockpit)in our boat. For them to hit the top of our bimini, they have to be 9 feet plus high. In the dark with no moon we could not see them coming at all although sometimes you can hear a different rushing noise as one approaches– they just broke over us and made it sound like the boat was doomed. As always, however, Regina rose to the challenge and bobbed back up like a cork. The noise and the force of the impact of a large unseen wave breaking on the boat is quite an adrenaline rush, and in spite of our cockpit enclosure, the seawater still found its way into the boat through the zippers and small openings.
Other than some nausea, the only casualty of the trip was Mary Beth’s two basil plants. They live outside under the dodger (which is part of the cockpit enclosure and protects the cockpit from the front direction). They did fine there last year and provided us much-appreciated fresh basil. Now they are no more as they escaped from their pots twice when one of the big waves hit, and the second time there was not enough dirt left to support them. Very sad.
We finally got to Lake Worth around 11pm and even MB was ready for a rest. It’s a large inlet with a lot of use by both commercial and pleasure boats and is well marked with lighted buoys; however once you get through the inlet, it's a different story. It’s a bit unnerving coming into a strange anchorage at night. David stood on the bow with a searchlight so he could shine a light on any unlit marks, mooring balls and boats that didn’t have an anchor light on. This is a crowded anchorage as it is a good place to stage before crossing to the Bahamas. We found a spot to drop our anchor in the dark, ate dinner and got lovely warm showers before dropping into bed.
This anchorage is also pretty busy and has strong currents with the tide changes so boats move very differently at times. Typically a boat “hangs” on its anchor facing into the wind, but here the current flow will over power the wind force on some boats and boats anchored here face in many different directions at the same time. This requires extra care when anchoring.
This morning we heard something odd and I popped my head out to check things. There was a young guy on a very old sailboat dragging anchor and heading right for us. He was alone on his boat, and he was clearly struggling to control the boat and get his anchor deployed. We quickly tied on some bumpers and used some muscle to keep the boats apart. To make matters worse his motor was not working and the wind was blowing pretty hard.
We figured out that one problem was he had snagged our anchor chain with his. By now a Good Samaritan appeared in a motorized dinghy and he dragged the boat away from us and to a safe anchor spot. First though, the sailboat guy had to dive into the water and untangle the anchor chains. Between us and the Good Samaritan in the dinghy he finally moved away from us and seems to have his anchor down now at a safe distance from us.
Tonight we temp fate yet again as we head into the Gulf Stream. This is the last weather opportunity to cross to the Bahamas for the next week. The captain assures me (David) that this will be fine. Would you believe her?
Thanks for reading!
David & Mary Beth
S/V Regina Maris
Komentarze