Sunday 03 December 2006

I spent the morning recovering from the night before. At 1800 we would have to attend the awards ceremony for the boat parade, so I needed to recuperate just a tad bit anyway....

Since the parade the previous night, the winds were now up out of the north at around fifteen to twenty five miles per hour. We ate a leisurely breakfast at Manuels, and by time we ventured back outside the wind had steadly increased, nearing gale force.

Driving over to the marina we checked out Olivias moorings and I noticed the tide was higher than usual. I figured David would be on top of it too, and as if on queue the phone rang and it was him. "Hey it looks like there's enough water to be able to move my boat around....I know it's blowing like stink, but can you help me?"

Of  course.

So we decided that around 1600 would be a good time. I put on full rain gear and met David at the boat where he was finishing stowing things.

By now the wind was howling out of the northeast as we discussed strategy.

Casting off the lee side lines first, and finally the weather lines I fended the boat off with  the hook, we backed into the channel not even brushing the hull against the dock. We headed downwind toward the turning basin, where David spun the boat around and we charged into weather......

Heading out the channel mouth we were immediately assulted with about three to four foot chop as the wind blew us leeward onto the shallow bar on the north side. Somehow David managed to get it turned around, under control and back into the relative shelter of the fingers where we lined back up and charged out again into the slop.

This time we made it almost to 17 before the boat dropped out in a wave trough and scraped the bottom, losing momentum. We turned around again and headed back into the harbor to regroup.

David asked what I thought, and I reckoned that if we caught it just right, we could make it out into the open bay.

So off we charged again, this time fighting and clawing our way sometimes just inches into the weather as we rode up one wave crest, than down into the trough scraping the shallow bottom, almost losing momentum again, but somehow overcoming until we were well past 17 and David made the turn south.

The wind caught the mast and rigging and we heeled about twenty degrees under bare poles in the following frothing brown bay. Near Pirates Landing two juvenile dolphins lept and played alongside for awhile, but became bored with our slow progress south and abandoned us as quickly as they appeared. We joked about what people must be thinking crossing the causeway. "Will ya look at them guys Mabel, what kinda fools would try and sail on a day like today?"

Under the causeway and on he south side, the howling gale somewhat blocked we steamed toward the swing bridge, where Davids boat would now reside, and it wasn't long before we had turned up the adjacent channel and were nearing the slip behind the Port of Call condos.

I went forward as the boat nudged the dock, but as I climbed over the rail something happened, and I toppled onto the dock on my right shoulder and arm.

Momentarily unable to get up (help! I've fallen and I can't get up!), I nervously glanced up from my supine perch, looking around (as much as possible) hoping that no one else had seen this manuever. And anyway, if they had, I had an excuse; "I'm just inspecting the lower end of this mooring for security, I thought I saw some stress cracks on the piling" ....or something to that effect anyway. 

Fortunately, it didn't appear anything was seriously out of place either with myself or the errant piling, , and I was finally able to stand and shake it off. Rotating my arm, nothing seemed out of place or broken, so I finished tying off just Dee got there with the twins to pick us up.

The twins had been at a friends house overlooking the bay, and Kelani said: "We saw this boat going across the bay, and we thought it was SINKING!"...

I assured her no, we were not sinking, just motoring in bad conditions.

We finished securing Davids boat and went to Doubledays sports pub for a beer (or two) and then on to White Sands for the awards, where I once again got to play MC. Olivia took second in the large sailboat division, and my arm and shoulder were now throbbing.

And they still are today