Anchorages News

Friday November 14, 2008
Blustery day on the Nose. That has become the new buzz word for wind direction on this leg of the trip.
What is the wind direction for tomorrow and the next day, “On the Nose” so there we were bucking the tide and wind as we slowly progressed toward our destination which originally was Charleston but as I mentioned we had a bridge to catch before that and due to the fog in the morning we did not get our desired 7:00 am start. Dick and I took up anchor and moved to the town dock to take our garbage off and wait for the fog to clear. Progressing down the ICW around noon I headed down to make a sandwich and heard an slapping noise coming from the engine compartment. Dick came down to inspect the noise and I took over the wheel. I put it in neutral which was not such a good idea in a tide current because immediately it rounded up and we started going backwards. I slammed it into reverse to just go backwards and by then Dick had the door off and could see that a piece of the fan belt had peeled away and that it was still holding. Vertigo 1 deeked into Mc McClellanville to look for a dock for us to land and do the repair. When we came in the channel we went aground. There was a fuel dock but their hydro was out so we decide to get out of there before the tide got any lower. By now we knew we would not make it to the Ben Sawyner Bridge so we decided to pick an Anchorage on the way. Whiteside Creek was the selection it offered 10 -12 feet of water and no trees but high banks for wind protection. This stretch of the ICW was rather remote and not a lot of things to see but the Francis Marion National Forest. When we set our anchor we went aground and it took about 10 minutes for the tide to float her again. Tony and Diane joined us for dinner as I had made a huge potato salad the day before. Tried to call Joshua and wish him a Happy Birthday today but the phone would not work out here in the boonies.
Saturday November 15, 2008
Middle of the Night the winds kept building and gusting to I am told 35 knots. When I got up to go to the bathroom I noticed we were heeled over. Dick had gotten up to check on things and when I went to go back to bed I notice (threw the forward hatch) that the Genoa was loose a bit (about the size of a large watermelon and it was slapping really hard and snapping the rig. Dick tried to tighten the lines but the genoa sheets had gotten lodged some how and were wrapped all around it in a mess. The first fear wave attacked when I thought the fore stay could break and then the mast could fall down. Dick said we have to get it undone or we could loose the rig. That meant opening up the sail to unfurl it and reset it. The wind was so strong and the thought of doing that made me sick and then another thought came to me almost instantly about Jesus and the disciples in the boat and he rebuked the wind and it stopped so I put my fist in the air and said “Wind stop it, in Jesus Name. The most amazing thing happened and we almost did not realize it for a second or two as we kept working away at the sail but after we started letting more sail loose after each try the sail stopped snapping the rigging and we were able to completely unfurl it and reset it. The wind had subsided. When we got back in the boat Dick said to me that was a miracle. We closed our eyes to rest and his wrist watch alarm went off. Nothing could destroy that perfect peaceableness of going threw something like that.
I slept in until 1:00 pm. The fleet had decided not to move as the weather was going to continue with high winds, and rain storms. We put out more chain for the anchor to hold but that caused us to ride up on a high spot so we were a beached whale for about 5 hours. This can be stressful as the boat lays across the wind and heels over and keeps you on your toes. At about 9:00 pm we were free of the sandbar. After we were floating again Dick took up some of the chain to return us to our original mark. Glad we have the GPS – Still can't call Josh! I can't solve all the problems we keep coming into but I am thankful that the really scary out of control ones God is with us.