April 1-2 2021 Big Nasty comes to Town

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Thursday Lois wasn't feeling very well, so Brent did a solo trip to town to fill fuel jugs & a few groceries.  Since it was the first of the month, we also needed to top up our phone's data allotment on our Bahamas SIM cards.  When you buy the SIM cards, nobody explains that the data is good from the 1st to the last day of the month (instead of 30 days after you bought it), so surprise!  Suddenly you can't use your phone or internet for weather updates, mandatory daily covid survey, topping up the data plan on your phone (!), etc.  Brent got it all taken care of, but let's just say it wasn't quick or easy and took two trips to town.

The forecast pre-storm winds picked up while he was away, so he had quite the dinghy ride back.  

Between trips to town there was time for a paddleboard ride to check out the sunken airplane. Brent was accompanied by this beautiful 3ft barracuda that had been hanging around under the boat.  They're very curious creatures and he stayed right with the paddleboard to the wreck & back to the boat. 

Fuselage of the plane
Wing of the plane
Overview of the plane. Notice that 3-4 feet of wreckage sticks out of the water at low tide. 

Big Nasty (as we have named the storm)  was supposed to hit in earnest around midnight. During weather like this when we're at anchor we always resign ourselves to staying up all night, in shifts if possible, to be ready to take action if the anchor drags. This is what we want to see on the instruments: boat speed of zero point zero showing that the boat is staying exactly where we put it held in place by the anchor.
Unfortunately the anchor broke free of the bottom several times through the night when the wind was at full fury, despite having done our best to set the anchor well in a sandy spot between patches of sea grass.The GPS screen shows the story of the night:   the green dashed line shows our path(s) downwind driven by the storm,  our anchor skidding along in our wake, unable to gain purchase in the weedy bottom.  We reset the anchor a number of times during the tumult  between 2AM and 5AM,  then at last we found the magical spot that gave us a firm hold, even when winds reached 30kts.  We put a way point on the map somewhat sarcastically named GOOD HOLD showing that last anchor drop at 5 am, because it went in and held almost all the following day.   That waypoint came in handy after we drug one more time around sundown.

During the night we watched our neighbor boats go through similar experiences.  Fortunately everyone had running room downwind with few obstacles.  One boat drug more than a mile, all the way out of the cove, before realizing & acting to move back upwind to re-anchor.  Luckily no other boats were in his backwards path and he didn't run aground.

Needless to say we were exhausted by daybreak and slept as much as we could the following day , although the wind has stayed in a range of 15-30kts all day.

So now we are facing a second night of anchor watch as the storm crescendos after midnight.  We hope for the best and look forward to better weather and better anchorages in the very near future. 

I feel like I'm always recording difficult conditions or bad happenings in this blog.  But that's kinda the nature of sailing- the good parts are very good  and the bad parts can be at a minimum very uncomfortable.  If the good didn't ultimately outweigh the bad, we would stay home. Hopefully this blog can express a balance that captures the essence of the experience.  We will surely remember the adventures of Big Nasty when we read this post at sometime in the future.  

Comments

Kathy B said…
Sorry! Those kinds of sleepless nights are no fun...and anchor dragging wx is always at night. Isn’t it?!
April 3, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Lynn and Ed said…
Anchor dragging is always memorable and good fodder for a blog. Hoping for sunny calm weather in your future to make up for it.
April 4, 2021 at 10:10 AM
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