We left Newport on Sunday at 5:15am and headed out. Now the forecast from NOAA as well as every other weather service had said North winds at 10-15mph with swells of 1-3 feet. NOW HEAR THIS--THEY LIED!!!! Try 30-35 knot winds from the North with swells of 15-20 feet!!!
It came screaming at us about 8 hours out. Since the wind was out of the North and sailboats can't sail into the wind, we were forced to motor. And motor we did for the entire rest of the trip. With seas and winds to the contrary, there was no way we were going to even attempt to put out a sail. Ted and Judy(fellow cruisers at the marina)--next time you see Keith, please tell him he was right--we should have waited. Since the extended forecast is for the same, I'm not sure it would have mattered. Perhaps the best thing we should have done was head South and have the rigging changed there. Ah, that is just water under the boat.
The first day, it was just getting started. We battened down the cockpit with its complete dodger. This is a canvas enclosure that totally closes off the cockpit to keep the elements(insert water here) out of it. Our thanks go out to Bill & Susan for having this made. I cannot imagine what the trip would have been like without it. As it was, water came in thru the front and the slits in the sides. I'm just glad Tracy had saturated the canvas with water repellent. It would have been MISERABLE without it. As we headed North, the wind and waves kept building till they were smashing over the bow(pointy end of the boat) sweeping the deck and up and over the dodger and stern. Nothing remained dry. And I mean nothing. Water leaked into the boat thru hatches and port lights even when they had been screwed down tight. Time for new seals I guess. We climbed the side of oncoming waves and surfed down the other to take water over the bow time after time. Several times, Zephyr was airborne, coming down down into the troughs with a resounding and reverberating bang!!!!! Every fiber of her shook violently.
Sunday night was the same all night. It calmed down some, but the winds just kept coming. Now, use your imagination. Put yourself in a tent during an earthquake(lasting 40+ hours), add a big wind machine and some one with a fire hose shooting it at the tent and there you have our trip. Monday, it built to even bigger waves and winds while the forecast had been for 5-10 mph winds and 1-2 foot seas(insert your tax dollars here). Water and wind, unrelenting. We considered taking shelter in one of the bays on the coast, but by that time, it was too late. We were past virtually all of them and without proper information in getting in, you can get in a lot of trouble. So on we pushed. Late on Monday, Tracy stumbled in the cockpit and hurt her left hand and wrenched her knee. She was in and still is in a good bit of pain. We expect to see a doctor when we get to Port Townsend.
On Monday, the steering failed. The bolts that tighten the steering assembly to the rudder that I had fixed about 6 weeks ago had worked themselves loose. Both sides had come loose. It had undone not only the primary nut but also the extra one that tightens against the first nut. The steering assembly had then dropped down and locked up the rudder so it wouldn't turn as much as was required. Alarms went off on the autopilot when it could no longer maintain the course we had programed in. Since we had worked on the system, we knew exactly what it's problem was and how to fix it. Up came the bunk in the master stateroom and down I went to the assembly. Luckily, this happened during one of the few lulls in the trip so Zephyr wasn't wrenching all over the place. Once tightened, all was well. I'm going to inspect it while we are here just to be sure. It is still a bit tighter (harder to turn the wheel)than I would like. It's times like that that I am glad I have learned so much about Zephyr's systems over the past ten weeks.
Later that day, the main GPS went off line. It couldn't get a "fix". That took out the main chart plotter. Then the radar went next this morning. I was concerned about restarting the GPS as it works with the autopilot and without that the night would have been absolutely horrible. So we went thru the night without a GPS. No big deal as I have a backup Garmin chart plotter. That's what sailors do--we buy more than one of everything. Even if it had failed, I still have a third system with its own GPS and charts. Big toys for big boys(and big boats). This morning, I restarted all the systems and all was fine. Not sure what caused the system failure but she is running fine now.
Early this morning, we started getting in with the BIG ships coming into the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Boy, they make them BIG now a days!! Having radar became very big on our list of what every boater needs. Sure are glad we have one. We could see them on the screen before we could see them with our eyes. They stayed away from us and we from them. At about 4am, I saw what looked like a Christmas tree out in the water where a blip on the radar said there was a boat but it was so dark, you couldn't make out his actual size. I turned this way and that until--having totally confused him, he called us on his VHF radio. He'd radioed his longitude and latitude and started talking about a boat making several course changes. Heck, it was easy to figure out who he wanted to talk to. I found out that he was 653 feet long and 65 feet wide. It was so dark, all I was seeing was the command tower of his boat--the Christmas tree. We talked for a while about what we were doing and got an up to date weather forecast. Now there was gale force warnings and small craft advisories out for the entire coast of Washington. His comment was that right then was the worst possible time to be out there for the next several days(insert Hudson Effect here). We found out later that all the fisherman here in Neah Bay had gone out and turned right around and come back.
We finally got to the Straits early this morning after getting other than the occasional cat naps in the cockpit, no sleep at all. It was the same with the previous night. Neither of us had had much sleep at all for the trip. Add on the fact that I had my first experience with getting sea sick and you can see how beat we were by this morning. I lived on pretzels and water for the past two days. Tracy had put on sea sickness patches so she was fine--at least for the first day. She started to crash the second. Couldn't go below decks without loosing her equilibrium. She started on my pretzel and water diet--hey no worse than prison food--bread and water. It worked fine. I'd already done the "chumming" the first day. I didn't want to repeat it. I guess I can no longer boast that I don't get seasick. Oh how the mighty have fallen!
As to the "kids", Blue plotted an act of piracy but the boys wouldn't go along. I'm still expecting a midnight attack by her tonight. Shadow was hit bad. Couldn't stand and couldn't sit. Just laid there. Snowshoe want up on deck so up he came and settled into one of the cockpit storage spaces. We'd brought one of their little sleeping tubes and brought it up on deck. He slept in it for quite a while. He needed a bit of loving so he could feel better. Blue found a nice space on one of the forward bunks and just stayed put. Never moved. Just laid there glaring at us as we passed her during the trip. While they have all been sailing before, it has never been like this. While they had hated the sound of the engine during previous tryouts, none had caused the boat to do what she was doing.
Given the waves, wind and swells this morning, we stayed way out West of the entrance to the Straits. Once we were feeling alright about where we were, we turned East and literally surfed down the waves into the Straits. This was new to us. Being pushed by waves, having them then go under your keel, leave you in a trough and continue on. Over and over for over 20 miles. UP and down, up and down. It didn't stop until we got to Neah Bay about 10:15 this morning. We radioed in for a berth assignment and motored in. With the still now totally fixed steering, I missed the turn into the sip. We turned around and went into another across the way. People came running to help us tie up. I'd radioed in earlier to advise them of the fact our steering was disabled a bit but they weren't to concerned. Oh well, we are here now and will be for a few days repairing several systems.
Would we do it again? While we had the choice of heading South and getting it done there or of coming back up here. Something had to be done so we could get under way in early September for down South. We'd been in Newport for eleven weeks while we had planned on only six. We had hoped to get as much done in Newport, but that wasn't going to happen. At the worst, nothing really bad happened. At the best, we learned what Zephyr will do when the chips are down and there is no where to go but forward. We are better for what we experienced and none the worse. So yes, I think we would do it again.
Tomorrow, start the cleanup and repairs.
2 comments:
Wow!! Your first trip had everything: wicked weather, equipment failure, mechanical failure.. what a test of will!
I'm relieved that you made it to port in one piece. I hope mom's knee is feeling better.
Don't forget the pirate (Blue)! Hope Tracy heals quickly. Arnica gel is good for sprains.
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