Last night, after sunset, we had a significant weather
event. According to boat reports with
wind instruments, we had winds in Georgetown to 75 knots, gusting to 91
knots. At Staniel Cay, they had 106
knots. It was all related to an
elongated low that formed near Cuba and then moved northeast very near if not
over us.
We were in the middle of dinner when it hit and knocked us
over on our side. The wind direction made
a change of over 90 degrees. It is great
holding at Monument, however when Hold Fast’s anchor turned to reset, it fouled
on some canvas. We were on the
move. The seas were quickly over 4 feet
in the anchorage. Myron drove the boat
to keep us from ramming others, while I was on the bow trying to get the storm
snubber off the anchor chain and get the anchor up. It was a significant challenge as I spent
about 20% of the time holding my breath as the bow dipped into the oncoming
seas. I had my inflatable life vest on
and I am thankful that it did not self-inflate in the middle of my task. Everyone had their motors on and we were all
able to keep boats from coming together and we never fouled anyone else’s
ground tackle.
As we maneuvered away from the anchorage to an open spot, we
checked to see if the dinghy was still attached to Hold Fast. It was, but it had flipped over in the
winds. We could not see the dinghy
engine and assumed it was on the bottom back at the anchorage. We pulled out into the middle of Elizabeth
Harbour and put out a 12 to 1 scope, managed to get the storm snubber back on
in the rough seas and then waited it out.
It was now 8:45 pm. By midnight,
the winds let up and we could go check gear again. The wind vane suffered some re-arranging when
the dinghy went airborne, the generator had been tied down on deck, so it still
there and we secured it in the cockpit. I
had one of the water ports open hoping to catch rainwater, so we fouled the
port-side tank with sea water. The
inside of the boat was a mess. To my
delight and surprise, the coconut pie I had just made was about the only thing
that did not find the floor!
Our first priority at daybreak was to right the dinghy. As we pulled the dinghy to the side of the
boat, we were elated to see that the black motor which we could not see at
night was still attached, albeit inverted and taking a good salt water
soak. We wrestled the dinghy upright using
a halyard, and were able to recover the fuel tank and fuel line. The dinghy anchor was entangled with the
motor and fuel line. We lost one oar and
the paddles that attach to the ends of both oars.
The outboard is now on the back of Hold Fast. Myron has pulled the spark plugs, sprayed it
with WD40 and it is drying out. He will change the oil next. He did a good once over of Hold Fast’s Ford
Lehman engine as it worked very hard as Myron powered against such significant
winds. All is well.
Many of us were checking on each other via radio and email
last night. It is good to be in the
company of people who care and want to help.
Last night we got an offer from ‘Jammin’ to help us find out outboard
and this morning we got a call from ‘Tilt’ offering the same thing. We listened to the net this morning about all
the boaters who incurred damage either from going ashore or tangling with other
boats. Myron is making notes about who
else needs help. Several have suffered
much worse than us. I will put our oar
and oar paddles on the lost and found list.
I have bruises but nothing is broken. To sum it up, we had our butts handed to us
last night. But we
are OK and better off than some. Today is a day of recovery.
Love to all,
Dena
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