Wind & Rain

Oct 13th-14th - Spectre Island

When we woke up Monday morning, the wind had increased considerably. My jury rigged shade tarp on the top deck was flapping terribly, and I thought it might blow away any moment. So the first task of the day was to get it rolled up and stowed. It got a bit exciting a couple of times, but I finally got the beast rolled up and tied down. Good thing, too, as not long after the wind climbed to 30+ MPH.

We had breakfast, then I went out to adjust the anchor chain. I wanted to let out enough for 10:1 scope so we would be secure in whatever the storm threw at us. I also extended the snubber lines out to 30' so we had plenty of line to act as shock absorbers, and take the load off the anchor roller and bow pulpit.

Not long after doing all this the wind alarm on the Davis weather station went off. The wind was gusting up to 42 MPH. Even in our protected anchorage we were getting some small waves. But with the boat all buttoned up it was hard to tell anything was going on outside. The boat is heavy enough that it just does not react to high winds very much.

The day remained overcast, with lots of dark scudding clouds. But none of the forecast rain. We just hung out doing our normal boat stuff; relax, read, internet, tinker with boat projects. Then I remembered that the Shelter-rite cover on the framework over the flying bridge had opened a seam a few days ago when we had some high winds. I decided it would be prudent to do something to prevent it getting worse. I have some tarp repair tape and thought I could use that to seal the seam. It requires that I climb up to the top. Since this seam was on the front edge there is no way to get a ladder there. I can no longer crawl across the top since I added all the solar panels last spring. This means I have to balance on the top rail of the windscreen and try to hold on with one hand while applying this super sticky tape with the other. I did manage to get a double wide strip along the entire seam, and just hope that will be enough. This top is over 20 years old and all the thread on the seams is dry rotted, and falling apart. I know it is time to replace it, I've just been putting it off. It will require that I remove everything; solar panels, radar, satellite dish, weather station, spotlights, antennas, etc. Quite the job. But, I don't think I can put it off much longer.

After all that prep, all we could do is hunker down and wait. The worst of the weather did not arrive until late that night, after we had gone to bed. We were awakened by all the lightning and thunder, as well as the pounding rain. Since we had to button up the boat for the bad weather, this is the first night we have had to run the generator so we could stay cool. I ended up shutting it down around 0300.

By Tuesday morning the worst was past. There were a few showers until around 0900, then the sun came out. The wind was still howling, and it was much cooler, but it was a beautiful day. I watched the sailboat with the kids head out around 1000, and wondered if that was a good idea. They made it a short distance out of the anchorage, then raised the jib all the way. This was crazy with the wind gusting to 40+.  There was an immediate problem. A strong gust knocked the boat over a good ways, and proceeded to blow the boat sideways across the channel. The channel is very narrow here and they were getting blown towards some private docks. The gust also ripped a huge hole in the sail. They let the lines on the sail go and it was flapping madly in the wind, with the lines cracking like a whip. He finally got his engine started and headed into the wind long enough to get the sail furled. Those poor children must have been scared to death. He motored on down towards Ft. Walton and then I lost sight of him.

I went up to check on my tape job, and found it had failed miserably. The seam had opened quite a bit more. We were contemplating heading west to Big Sabine Point later today. Since the wind was coming from the west, we were going to be heading directly into it. Combined with our forward speed we may see wind speeds up to 50 mph. I needed to get this seam repaired somehow. I ended up using some monofilament fishing line as thread and a corkscrew to punch the holes. It took a couple of hours balancing on that top rail, but the end result came out pretty good. It's not pretty, but it is functional. It will do for now.

While I was doing my seam repair I saw a couple of trawlers heading our way from the direction of Ft. Walton Beach. It turns out it was the two trawlers that passed us in Panama City, on the way to the Ft. Walton Yacht Club. I waved as they passed by, and decided if they could head west, so could we.

I finished my repair job and climbed back down. Much to Paula's relief!  We started getting things ready so we could get underway. We decided to have lunch before departing, turns out the delay was a good thing. We had noticed earlier that the Air Force commandos were out training. They had several of their black stealth RIB's buzzing around, and a bunch of guys swimming in the rough seas, dragging some stuff behind them. Once the guys got ashore all the RIBs started heading back to base... except one. It seemed to be heading towards us. As I watched it, I noticed the guy in back was trying to pull start the engine, with no success. The wind was blowing 30+ and the current was quite strong, too. So they were heading at us at a good clip. As they got close I walked out on the bow and asked if they would like me to tow them back to base. I really expected them to decline, and for all of them to jump in and swim back, while towing the RIB. But the senior guy glanced up at me with a look of gratitude, and said "that would really be appreciated".  I hopped into the dink and caught up with them. They were actually moving away at a pretty good clip between the wind and current... just in the wrong direction. They threw me a line and it ran it through the u-bolt on the stern. The plastic cleats on the dink won't stand up to towing. I started towing them upwind and up-current. This was not going to be a quick trip.

Ken "rescuing" the Air Force commandos!

Once I got around the island, it got really rough. I was taking a lot of spray over the bow and was getting yanked all over the place by the RIB I was towing. As we approached the ICW they called out that if I could just get them to the nearest dock on the base, they would be fine. That was okie dokey with me, because I was getting my butt kicked fighting the wind/current while pulling them. Once we got close to the dock a line of vans pulled up pulling trailers with RIBs. Apparently they had been looking for the missing crew and were happy to see they were okay. I pulled them within a few feet of the beach, until one could jump out and stand. I cast off the line and they all said thank you as I drove off. It was a rough and wet ride back to the boat, but I had a true sense of accomplishment. How often do you get to rescue commandos?

Once I had seen how rough it was outside our anchorage, we decided to wait one more day before departing. Tomorrow has to be better, doesn't it??