Day 74 - Well, that didn’t go as planned….
Today didn’t go quite as planned. I know that most of the summer and this blog makes it look like the sailing life is all sun and beautiful sunsets but the truth of the matter is we are living in the elements and sometimes the elements catch us.
We both slept like crap last night. The muggy level must be nearing 100%. With all the sand in our bed we may have as well been sleeping on the beach. Captain was sweet and vacuumed our bed when he woke while I did my typing time. We were very sluggish getting to shore about 10am. When we lifted the hatches, the skies did not match the forecasts I had been seeing and we could see rather dark skies in the west. We headed to shore to visit Uncle Brian and to play a lot of Frisbee with Kona. We got some amazing slow-motion shots of her and helped Brian load up his water toys as he was preparing to leave the cottage today. I used his hot spot to check our weather situation and regardless of what our apps said it was apparent we were due for a lot of rain and thunderstorms. I had planned on moving to Sturgeon Bay later in the day but had thought we had all day with predicted good sailing wind (read less then 10 knots) and no rain. Brian invited us to come inside and wait out the storm but we would prefer to sit out storms on Ciara just in case her anchor slips we are with her and can react. We said our good-bye’s to Brian and headed back to Ciara. I was kina excited for the excuse for a nap while we waited out the storm.
Back at Ciara, Captain and I looked at the skies (and the forecasted wind) and decided we would make the quick 1:15 hour jump back to a more protected anchorage in Sturgeon Bay as we needed to move anyhow and Sand Bay is really exposed to the winds that were predicted overnight and through the next few days.
Thinking it wouldn’t be a big deal we just pulled the anchor and got going. Right away we had that nice wind that was predicted so Captain let out our jib sheet and we were sailing really nicely at 5 knots. We could hear thunder approaching and it was getting closer, we weren’t going to out run this storm so we put on our rain gear. About 20 minutes into our perfect sail Captain said “I see wind coming” with the dark cat paws coming from the North. Wait, those winds are supposed to be coming from the West!!!??
The winds picked up super-fast. We were all the sudden in white caps and our jib only had us racing at 7 knots (this is fast!) and getting over powered. We needed to pull in the sail which was very hard. Captain had to actually tie the rolling fuller line around the jib winch to pull her in while I attempted to slowly let her out from the starboard side. It was hard work. While letting out my line all four wraps around the winch came off sending me to brace my feet against Ciara to hold onto the line and control it until Captain was able to reduce the sail enough. It was a “sporty” few minutes but we were able to get the sail in to about 100 sq ft of sail (she is 500 sq ft fully out). Even with the itty-bitty sail we were moving at 4 knots! At least now the boat was stable and we were just left with the choices we made.
Sitting in the rain, watching the flag blow like crazy we realized this was nearly 30 knots of wind! I was white in the face. Mostly because I was in the stage of acceptance of our choices and thinking about the anchorages we were headed to. That anchorage was exposed to the north, and this wind would have been horrid to set anchor in and the idea of setting anchor in these conditions had me a little sick. That and the lighting all around us wasn’t helping.
As we rounded into the Sturgeon Bay channel the winds shifted to our stern and the seas calmed as we enjoyed a short down wind sail. We had changed out plans to anchor somewhere we hadn’t before that was better protected for the current situation, but again I was nervous as the depths on the charts were iffy to our clearance. By some act of grace before we got to said anchorages the winds did shift to the west! We decided to continue all the way to our original anchorages in town. About half way down the channel the winds just died and we had to turn on our iron genny. Thank goodness! Lighting and Thunder were still all around us, but the worst of the front had past and we pulled into our anchorage and dropped anchor as if we had been out for a normal little day sail.
Because we had just left our old anchorage without prepping the boat we found a wet mess when we went down below. We had kept our screen doors on and while we were sailing downwind the rain came straight in the boat. The walls on the opposite side of the pilot house were soaked as well as the floors. Thank goodness I have a stock of “floor towels.”
All secured I gave Captain his beer and declared I needed a G&T! We checked in with family, rested a short bit and then went to shore.
There is a little public beach here at our anchorage. We have never seen a sailboat anchored here and pretty sure it’s a rare sight. The beach was abandoned as we head to shore as it was still lightly raining. Captain made a joke “who is going to tell us how pretty our boat is?” As we pulled our dinghy up onto shore a nice gentleman with an umbrella met us. “Is that your boat? She is beautiful! I used to see her in Manitowoc!” So, there is that! Nice gentleman. We talked a bit and gave him a boat card (he has since sent me a nice note that I received the next morning, so that is really nice!).
We headed over to our old stomping grounds; our old marina. We headed to the boaters’ lounge where our friends George and Teri (who are still slipped at said marina) for Happy Hour! We had such a great time catching up with them and Kona enjoyed the attention and carpeted floors. We did confirm our suspicion that it was their good word and foresight that helped land us a winter home for Ciara as they are so actively involved in the community up here. We are eternally grateful and happy to see they are settling in to living up here after they sold their house in Madison.
I was getting a bit hangry around 7pm. We said our good-nights to George and Teri and decided to quickly walk the docks. Typically, on a Saturday night this place is hopping with parties, but with the rain and storms it was quiet and no one really around. We did find our friends on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Rich and Royce. They had seen us go through the bridges a few days ago and also saw we were anchored around the corner so they were expecting us :D Had a nice chat but I had to pull Captain away as my tummy had enough and was now in charge.
We headed back to Ciara just after the golden hour. Captain got to work right away on our Korma Curry while I opened hatches and windows, took some beautiful photos and continued to set the boat in order.
Dinner was amazing as always. Somewhere in dinner we had a quick “internet question” so as I pulled out my phone we saw it was 8:58. I quickly grabbed my horn and played taps. I’m not quite as consistent the last few weeks. Got out of habit with my split lip.
With a bad night’s sleep last night and a day that had its fill of adrenaline both of us decided to go to bed at 10pm. It has cooled down, the rain is gone and the hatches are back open. It is comfortable! I did have to get up a few times before I fell asleep as we were getting gently rocked and everything that wasn’t battened down (some rough cabinets) were going bump, pause, bump, pause ad nauseum. After all was well, I was out like a light.
