My last post said there was nothing miserable about Misery
bay, but I was wrong. This bay is possessed with gods of the waves and winds.
Normally a boat will automatically seek to go into the wind, nose first and
this makes the waves hit you on the bow. In this bay the boat is constantly
moving to the side so that waves hit us on the side, causing the boat to roll
something fierce. Last night this thing did not stay nose to the wind for more
than a few seconds at a time. The end result is stuff crashing in the
cupboards, doors slamming open and shut etc.. Very rough and very
uncomfortable. So this morning we came up with the brilliant idea to move to
burnt island, about a 1hr run in strong winds and waves of 5 feet
forecasted. So @ 7am anchor up and lets
go. As soon as we got into open water I started to feel uneasy so we turned
around and simply anchored on the other side of the bay to see if this was
calmer. It was less rolly for sure, but Jim also got out our small anchor and
set it off the stern to prevent us from turning into the beam waves. It worked
for quite a while so we set off to a few tasks. We reorganized the tool room in
the am and then broke for lunch. When I started cooking, Jim turned on the
generator to make sure we had enough power and he noted no water coming out the
exhaust. So power down in a hurry to figure out what was happening. He
diagnosed the issue in a hurry, it was the impeller. Now the big question... do
we have a spare? Two and 1/2 year ago when we bought this boat; we hired
Captain Chris to help us figure out all the systems and how to handle
everything. Chris made us buy a whole bunch of thing. One of them was the
impeller for the Generator. Jim remembered this; but did not remember where he
put it. But he found it in short order and quickly repaired the impeller. All
is well with the world. We continued with a few small tasks and one of mine was
painting the trim in the bathroom. After about an hour of this, I got sea sick
so I went to lay down for a bit. Around 5pm I hear the engines start up; so I
quickly get up to see what's going on. The anchor had dragged and we were now
getting dangerously close to the shore, so Jim started the engines. The winds
where so strong that my cushions on the front benches where flying off. I
grabbed those and brought them in and got to the anchor to bring it up. Oh
remember that small anchor Jim put out. Now the line is wrapped around the Port
side prop. OK so now we are down to one engine and winds so strong I can barely
stay standing up. By the time we got the anchor up and reset on the other side
of the bay, we both looked at each other and said, OK that was silly, never
ever go out without your life jacket on. So life jackets on we now make sure we
are set and not moving towards shore again. But once again we are rolling all
over the place. One particularly large wave hit us so hard that my serving
trays above the fridge went flying and shattered of course. Another casualty of
God Neptune! The liquor cabinet door flew open and bottles went rolling all
over the place. And this last one just floors me, cause I can't figure out
how...why...but the coffee table flipped over. Yeah you read that right, the
coffee table flipped over!
So now I just have
to do something, so I ask Jim if we have another anchor we can use to stabilize
ourselves. He said the only anchor we have left is the one for the dinghy. This
will not work he says because it is too small and does not have the right kind
of teeth on it for this rocky bottom. Well I want to try anyway I said, so he
gets it out for me, but he is not convinced. I start throwing the anchor out
over the stern trying to get it to catch on something to no avail. Jim was
right, but don't tell him I said so. After a few throws, Jim said "this is
going to get us nowhere but give me the darn thing, you throw like a girl"
He heaves it out the side and then walks away from me mumbling something
lol. I quickly call him back though
cause I caught something with the anchor....It's the other anchor! Imagine
that. Now we are back in business. Jim quickly ties this one and throws it over
the port side of the stern and gets us stabilized nose into the waves. Ahhhh
much more comfortable. This lasts about 20-30min before we start turning in the
opposite direction. I swear to god this Misery bay does not want us to stay
comfortable. So here we sit, Life jackets on, waiting for the weather to break
so we can keep heading on our trip. But now we have to wait until Jim can dive
into the water and get the darn rope unwrapped from around the prop. He will
probably get to that tomorrow am, but who knows. The last weather report said 4
to 7 foot waves for Lake Huron tomorrow. Looks like we are stuck in Misery bay
one more day! Yippee! Tonight we take shifts watching the anchor. Since I got a
few hours sleep during the day, I will take first shift. This is going to be a
long night!
No comments:
Post a Comment