Mishaps

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Try not to leave a port tired.  Yesterday, the official start of our long-planned circumnavigation, we left Fort Lauderdale after what might reasonably be called a three-year sprint to the starting line.  We had finished bringing the boat down from Annapolis on New Year’s Eve, and spent the next three weeks in an orchestrated  minuet of: unplugging from our professional, personal, and family connections; overseeing the final repairs, improvements,  and additions to our 44’ foot Fountaine-Pajot catamaran; and supplying ourselves with enough staples and dried goods for a year. 

I was tired of being cooped up in a marina, and we had a weather window to Bimini, so at first light, we slipped the dock lines, eased out of the slip, and headed west.  The forecast was light and variable till mid-afternoon, when the wind would pick up from the E-NE, allowing us time to enter and cross the nearby Gulf Stream before the wind created too much of a chop.

The forecast held – but only until 10:00 or so, when the winds picked up to 20-22 knots from the east.  We raised sail with a double reef, and settled in for a bumpy motor sail across the Stream, needing to make the 50 miles to Bimini by late afternoon to avoid running aground on the unmarked shifting sands and coral visible only in daylight.

First mishap:  as we were setting sail, we neglected to bring in the fishing line we had promptly set, hoping to catch some dinner on the way over.  The yellow, 100 lb test line promptly wrapped itself around out wind generator, creating an unholy mess.  We were lucky – had a fish of size chosen to strike our lure, it would have likely twisted one of our props before setting off dragging 50 yards of line and (perhaps) a piece of our generator.  My brother Stephen, who is joining us for the first long leg of our trip, along with his wife Guita, brought the line in quickly, but not before the line managed to wrap itself – oh, maybe 500 times – around the hub of the wind generator.

The lack of sleep, bumpy ride, and newness of the Gulf Stream sea conditions conspired to send my wife and co-captain Jennifer down for what turned out to be a nice long nap.  Guita soon followed.  The winds remained steady at 20-22 knots from the east, and with two reefs and two 30hp Volvos, we were making a respectable 6 knots to the southeast, on a tight beat. 

Second mishap:  A few nights earlier, at our marina, I had opened the porthole on the interior of our port bow to allow some interior breeze to flow through for Stephen and Guita, whose cabin lay in the port aft.  (You know where this is going.)  A few hours before making landfall, I did a check of the cabins and found myself stacking a large pile of sea-soaked bedding atop a sea-soaked foam cushion mattress.  The water had also drained into our port bilge – where thankfully, we had triple- and quadruple wrapped our dry goods and provisions.

Arriving in Bimini, we encountered a strong southward setting current at ebb tide, coupled with the persistent 20-25 knots of wind from the east.  We had arranged with Weech’s Bimini Dock to take us in for a few nights, and they had saved a spot for us along the N-S running bulkhead.  With a few pits in my stomach, I circled the dock area once, and let IDG drift to stop about 30 yards east of the docking area, and let the wind push us sideways onto the dock.  With some dockside assistance and the timely introduction on bumpers by my now fully-alert shipmates, we managed to tie alongside safely – and without mishap!  An hour or so processing paperwork, arranging bumpers, and making a start on the yellow fishing line tangle, we were safe and secure, and ready for showers, some food, and, yes, some sleep.

The following morning's sunrise and subsequent brunch eased the pit in my stomach from causing so much unnecessary hardship on our boat and my shipmates.  The day was filled with sunshine and wind, chores and errands, and ended with a solid night's sleep (again) by all.  Never leave tired, but if you do, head to Bimini and be blessed with understanding shipmates.

/jon