6-3-17?
Liz has been out here for awhile. She took a break for a year and has now returned to take care of the islands hair. I always had some idea she was originally Australian, because she has dreadlocks, tattoos, and a look that for some reason gave me that impression. There is no accent though, probably because she's from Iowa. She's somewhere between 30 and 40, quiet enough to make you realize she's smart and capable = able to handle herself in situations that many others wouldn't. The first year here she punched some idiot in the face. (please refer back to earlier journal entries) He completely deserved it, and was kicked off the island shortly after. Maybe that "capable" adjective came partly from that.
We went sailing Sunday. I had asked her a week before and the weather looked like it could be good. The forecasts here, especially for the wind, are worthless more than two days out. Saturday afternoon showed 21mph winds from the north east. Saturday evening showed 16mph from the same direction. The second forecast was much more conducive to sailing, especially sailing to the west reef islands.
We left around ten am. The "float plan" that I turned in Saturday evening changed Sunday morning. The east reef looked less appealing due to the wind direction, so we headed to the west reef as I had originally planned in my head. The problem with the west reef island is that the winds blow directly at them, well at an angle. The catamarans love sailing with the wind at their side nearly perpendicular. They travel the quickest when the wind is "beam reach", the sailing term for the wind hitting the boat perpendicular to the length of the boat.
Sailing up the east reef means sailing up the leeward side of the causeway, all nice and protected by the wind. It's best with direct east winds regardless of wind speed. I say "regardless of wind speed" because the wind out here is normally not very strong at its strongest. 30 mph is heavy winds here with a few exceptions. If the winds are too much northeast it leaves you making a bunch of stretchy "Z" patterns trying to go up the causeway.
So instead of stitching up the east reef in what would have been mostly calmer waters, we headed in a straight line to the third island up on the west reef. It gets choppy over there on those islands in the lagoon side because there is 4 to 10 miles of open water that the wind has the chance to mess up. The island I had been to before and thought I was returning to again was the 4th island up the west reef. It had some coral heads but a big sandy beach. The island we got to didn't have a sandy beach on the lagoon side. It had big ugly coral heads and softball size rocks as a beach.
We got there, in 3 foot chop, maybe four. Liz was driving the whole time, and it was a great trip. She continued to do a great job driving when we approached the island and she headed the boat up wind to stop it about 100 ft off shore in terrible waves. I chucked the anchor anyhow. The anchor caught and that part was good, but we were getting rocked in the boat. There was no grabbing our stuff (her awesome sandwiches) and swimming to shore. It was just way too rough with the boat jumping up and down there was no way I could relax on shore knowing something would break on that boat before sending it into the rocks and coral head directly behind it. It was a mutual decision to pull anchor and leave to a calmer spot. The problem is the anchor didn't want to come free. It was only twelve feet of water so that part wasn't a big deal. The anchor was holding still after several attempts of me pulling the boat forward enough to be on top of it to be in the best place to dislodge it. The little boat was bouncing so hard in the bow I was being so careful not to get my fingers tied into the rope too much because the whole pain thing. After realizing the anchor wasn't going to come lose from me just yanking, I sat back a little to gather my thoughts and Liz says we should use the motor to try and get in front of the anchor and pull it from that spot. At that point starting the motor was a great idea, that I was about to come up with before she stole it. We tried a half a dozen times to run over the anchor and pull it out from that angle, but it was fruitless. I kept having thoughts that ..wow she's doing a great job of steering and working the motor from back there. She just knew what to do, or it seemed so from my vantage point, which was not looking back at her. I'd have to say she never really got the boat, or at least the bow, very far in front of the anchor, but it wasn't her fault for trying. The waves were so big the motor was out of the water half the time so it couldn't push forward.
I made the decision, quickly, before Captain Liz did, that I had to go dislodge the anchor. The idea was to snorkel down pull the boat forward enough and put the anchor in a place where it would still hold, but that it could still be pulled from above at the right angle. I put the snorkel mask on, and had thoughts of just diving in without the fins, but Liz, Captain Liz, suggested using them. I was going to use them, I just had thoughts of not.
It's weird how all that violence and stress can be happening above the water, then you dive in and its this beautiful calm place.
Liz had asked me before I went in if the anchor line would hold, because she thought we had gotten closer to shore. Actually closer to the big coral head directly 50 ft behind us. I told her we have not gotten closer. The weak link in my anchoring deal was this rope tied to either side of the bows of the catamaran so it would end up in a "V" shape to tie the anchor line to. They were ...well lets just say it was a really pretty tie job using smaller kite line to tie it on either side. Then there was this "Danik" hook I bought offline that was hooked to the middle of the "V" line.
So, when I went snorkeling, after looking at the situation from the top of the water for a bit, I decided to dive down and do something. As I made it do the bottom by the anchor, I looked back and saw the "Danik" hook sinking with the line behind it. NOT GOOD
I came to the surface to see what was going on and before I got the visual, I heard the little 2.5hp motor revving up. That was a good sound. The visual comes in and Liz is driving the boat mostly parallel to the island but out a bit and south away from me. I waved to the boat as it headed away from me as a little inside joke. The main sail was not connected and flapped in the wind. The jib was still connected though. The boat did wheelies. I was impressed totally. She was driving the boat away from shore with all kinds of chaos going on. Sails flapping, waves smashing, the shore nearly a stones throw away, a motor that was in and out of the water too much and I think she had just learned to steer the boat that day. I was soo worried the motor might quit.
I had to stop being impressed with her and do the stuff I had to do if she came back for me. I dove down and wrestled the anchor free, then got back to the surface. I was pulling in the rest of the anchor rode quickly to keep it out of the prop that I hoped would be heading back my way when I surfaced. I was rooting for her!! It was like, well if the boat gets all smashed up no biggie, it was all my dumb idea.....but Liz was heading back my way however the wind was blowing her into the island. Her head moved around a lot, but she figured it out, she kept cool except for that little moment when the motor turned, and the wind and the rudders acted against her...wait she kept her cool then too. She steered the boat again back south and this time she headed much further out. I swam directly away from shore knowing she'd be coming back. I had 150ft of 3/8" anchor line and ten feet of chain with a five pound anchor when she got back to me.
I swam at the bow and chucked all the rope and anchor up on the front trampoline.
She did really good.
No pictures though....we were busy!
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