Salty Sea Story

Hope you have some time to sit down…drink some tea…and enjoy this one!
Do you know what 52 knot wind (F10) with 15 to 20 foot seas in a 53’ sailboat feels like? One step further…SOUNDS like? For the second time is as many years…Paul and I do…and, now our friend Dennis knows too! And, while last year we were not far offshore...this year we were WAY offshore (Atlantic somewhere) and there was more than just that difference. Remember the last blog and the crab pot? With the high winds and gaining upset seas…the bilge pump would come on every 15-20 minutes…now, you can really look at this two ways!! The first: Thank heaven whatever water we are taking on is getting pumped out. And the second: Oh my god…why are we taking on water…will the bilge pump stay working…will the “leak” get worse…okay, I could go on. BUT - I preferred the first way of looking at it and would watch with delight when the pump light would come on periodically! (Paul feels that the crab pot line creased an o-ring seal in the bow thruster – to be addressed and taken care of later.) THEN, let’s see…one of the auto pilot drive motors stopped working. Okay, no problem, there is a back-up. But when the back-up stopped working (okay for those that know these things – the boat thought she knew better than the auto pilot where and how we should be going and since the wind and the seas were stronger than the auto pilot) we were “hove to” for more than 5 hours going 20 degrees (relatively NNE) which was 130 degrees off from our course of SE or around 150 degrees! The main sail got stuck in the track…so we could no longer take any more sail in…which lead to what Dennis saw first-hand from the cockpit…for the first time on Paul’s boat…the rail in the water!!! I was in the saloon and saw through the ceiling hatch the water and wave horizon present itself twice…so I knew that for that view from where I was…Paul could no longer make THAT claim (he had never had the rail in the water)! The SSB was working fitfully…so getting weather was a struggle…although what the heck…the weather had been (and was) wrong anyway! The bimini top side started peeling off at the zipper…so with all three of us topside we managed to remove the side window and get it inside before it was completely lost. The sail viewing top window completely shredded off of the bimini (we were planning on replacing it this year anyway)…AND as of right now it looks like the only plant that may have survived is the lemon grass…and even that may take MONTHS before we can have lemon grass tea again! The salt spray was too much for the thyme, oregano, and rosemary. The inside of the boat was ready for a normal to heavy sail…but…in a storm…well, EVERYTHING began flying around (including me from the cabin bed…so while my ribs HAD been feeling better slowly…now the only reason they don’t hurt is that my hip has a bruise with pain unlike I have ever seen/felt before)! We lost the microwave plate – we lost the printer – AND MOST IMPORTANT (of course that depends on who you talk to) we lost one of my favorite ear-rings – probably thrown out with the plate glass! So with virtually no sleep…we all still “stood” our watches and endured (okay, I endured – I was not a happy camper with all the little things that were going wrong – Dennis was like a little kid…enjoying every minute). Finally, we did get the boat pointed in the right direction…the main was able to get “unstuck” AND the spare auto-pilot did begin working again…it took four days out of port before we began what I would call a great SAIL!!! I was back to enjoying….25-30 knots of wind and 8-10 knot boat speed…that is what sailing is all about! We were able to keep sailing for 3 days and catch two Mahi mahi in those days! Fresh fish for dinner…life is good… Then a high pressure…no wind. So we motored. We had two swordfish on in two consecutive days of motoring…one jumped out of the water and was able to spit the hook out…the second broke the 50 pound test line! And, then about the time the wind began again…the noise that I had noticed days earlier (and we had tried to isolate then) started again! While Paul and Dennis were trouble shooting – they found the boat would not go back into gear…so a quick check of the transmission found that there was no ATF on the dipstick! Thank heaven…for two things…Paul had 1 ½ quarts of the stuff AND the winds picked up and we could turn off the engine and SAIL again! We are now safely anchored in Simpson lagoon, Sint Maarten, the Dutch side. I’m pretty sure Paul will blog his boat “woes” as we have a lot of things to fix! But, this passage “had it all” so to speak, just another sea tale, however, this one includes Dennis…thankfully...All of us sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner...so…for UD…thank you…big hug…fair winds…and calm seas, my friend!! Oh, and to go back and answer the first two questions of this blog from my perspective (of been there…done that), number 1: humbling; and, number 2: although I’ve never had a freight train go so close to me to have heard that particular overbearing frightening sound, nor have I ever heard a sound such as that for as long as we ended up hearing that sound…both Paul and I mentioned that we felt if we had to describe the sound that the closest we could come to describing it would be a freight train as close as possible to you and yet you could survive!