Before Wednesday night's fiasco, our plan was to ride the wind to Long Island on Thursday. However Thursday ended up being a day of repair and recovery. Myron got our outboard squared away and it is purring nicely. He went to help Brent on 'Strider' with his salt soaked outboard, but Brent was already getting help from another cruiser. We went and fetched some of our 'Sea Foam' to share with Brent to help disperse the water in the gas. They were up and running within 30 minutes of our visit. We toured around in Hold Fast looking at the bottom, but could not find our other gear. While touring, we saw several dinghies at 'Blue Heavens' with people all over her like ants, repairing the damage suffered from hitting the rocks. It was heart-warming to see. We heard a lot of thank-you's over the radio and appreciation of the cruiser kindness. The lady on Bamboo, who was hit by another boat that tore up her rigging and chain plates, was almost in tears when she was thanking people for their help, including someone that brought her chocolate. Gotta love that!
In town we got a few more details of the previous night, such as the winds went from 10 knots from one direction to over 70 from another in the snap of a finger. We met Ed and Sharon on 'Imagine,' a Passport 42 we managed to avoid as we tried to raise anchor. Ed was impressed with Hold Fast and her crew, mostly because we avoided them, but also because it was so rough they would occasionally see our keel. Not just the round bottom at the bow, but the keel. Sharon kept repeating that to me because she was so stunned that we came that far out of the water. They could not believe Myron was keeping control of the boat in such rough waters. I also discovered that the revving sound I heard when I was on the bow of the boat (trust me, it was hard to hear anything in that wind, but I heard this) was not Jammin's prop coming out of the water but their wind generator trying to tear itself apart. During the mayhem, the thought did cross my mind about someone's wind generator shedding its blades in all directions - like toward us - but I was too busy to dwell on it.
So kudos to Myron's driving, to Hold Fast's big engine, but mostly we thank God for our safe delivery.
We understand that the low is now a storm system and may possibly even get a name. Even though it is gone, it is sending us some large swells from the north. Nothing too bad as we left the southern cut from Georgetown, but it was uncomfortable. Once we were behind the long line of reefs, we had smooth running to Long Island and a slight breeze out of the northwest. I emptied most of the water in the fouled tank when I used it to clean salt water off our solar panels and the enclosure (salt water on the inside AND out!) We made about 117 gallons of water and every tank is full.
There are about ten boats here at Long Island. We should be meeting them under better circumstances!
At some point, Pastor Craig will be available to receive the donations. We can see some of the destruction from the anchorage, such as a boat way up on land, roofs missing and damaged docks. The trees are dead a good 30 feet up the shore. We should know more when we meet with Pastor Craig.
Love to all,
Dena
{GMST}23°21.48'N|075°08.08'W|1/8/2016|4:54 PM{GEND}
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