S 13

Having had 2 nights sleep has put enough time between shakedown cruise II and now, that I can finally reduce it to words. It's a day that I hope never repeats itself and that I hope to never put us through again.

I have never considered myself particularly superstitious nor have I ever known Chrissy to be superstitious.

That said, I am more cautious than normal when a black cat crosses my path.  I do not make a habit of walking under open ladders.  I am careful when handling mirrors so as not to break one.  I would not walk on the chalk like on a baseball diamond if possible to avoid. I am not fond of any string of numbers that includes "666". And, I'm appreciative when airlines omit naming any row "13", and when hotels do not have a "13th" floor.  

Saturday morning started out like it was going to be a grand day. We planned to move exactly 5.4 miles (as the crow flies) west of here to the city marina offering us new elements of adventure, more services, and another, albeit small, step closer to heading home.

We had a relaxed breakfast and coffee, then each began working on unassigned duties that we knew had to be done to cast off.  High tide was at 12:30 so generally that would be departure time.

I began to work on the various things on the dock and topside--getting the floor boards back into our dinghy. This had been particularly difficult the first time we did it, but I was relieved that it did go much easier this time.  Our dinghy had now spent 2 nights in the water after the repairs we made, and we were particularly happy that it was holding air IN and water OUT.  This would be critical when we got to the mooring ball at the marina, since Ripple would be our "car" to get is from the Hoot to the marina to avail ourselves to their many services.  

Chrissy was busy below deck, having learned how much things shifted around on our first shakedown, and securing things for our short journey.  The coffee pot, tools, food, groceries all stowed away.  

I unplugged our electricity and water, readying for our departure, and cleaned up our dock area.  We fired up the engine which we hoped to use sporadically since it still is running "hot".

It seemed routine, we collectively did the tasks that needed to be done, and at approximately 12:30, we cast off the last dock line and made our way out of our canal for the last time.  We wouldn't miss the mosquitos, but the people here have been good to us and we were leaving familiar, if not particularly comfortable, surroundings.

As we motored the 1.5 mi or so down the narrow channel, we found ourselves with plenty of water given that we had "mastered" the tide tables now.  Chrissy went below and made soft drinks for the trip which I hoped would take us no more than 5 hours. Spirits ran high and we both smiled and waved at passing boats.

As we neared the end of the entry channel and the beginning of Hawk Channel, aka Atlantic Ocean, the breeze picked up and it was turning out to be a really nice day.  

      

We started to deploy our sails and the mainsail was jammed. As happy as we were to get it in on the last time out, it was disappointing that it wouldn't come out of the furler.  Not a big deal really and with the increasing breeze, the headsail would do fine, or so I thought. This learning curve is still reall steep.

As we moved into Hawk Channel, winds now reported at 12kts, increasing to 17 kts in a couple of hours. Excellent.  And, while the seas were higher than the last time out, forecast of 2-4 ft, the boat handled it easily.  

We rolled out the jib and we were sailing along at 3.5 - 4 kts.  Again this was encouraging.  

Chrissy made sandwiches for lunch and we enjoyed sailing for a half hour or so, relaxed, peaceful, serene.  It's a feeling so nice it's hard to describe, as you glide along with the only sound being the surf and the wind.  

One thing we had read about Irwin 37's, is that they do not sail well to wind.  So attempting to make 8-9 miles west, in a WNW wind, was actually not possible, considering we had no main.   It just took us a while to figure that out.  The more the wind blew, the harder it got to move up to the wind. We were covering a lot of ground, but with the current and having only the jib, we were making only slight progress to the west.  

The wind gradually strengthened and as it did, the boat became more difficult to steer.  With no mainsail to balance the boat out, the wind was pushing us around more than the rudder.  At times, we didn't have enough control of the boat to even tack and had to employ the engine just to change directions.  

The wind became stronger and the seas were the biggest we had been in this far.  At one point as we tried to start the engine, it wouldn't start!  Crap!  All of the sudden, it wasn't fun any more. 

The VHF radio was going off all afternoon with the coast guard announcing boats in distress.  Engine issues, health issues, boats taking on water.  It was frightening to say the least.  

All this time, I never left the wheel and Chrissy did everything out of the cockpit, including trying to zip tie a line that been ripped from the back edge of our only sail. 

       

Earlier she experimented with how long the line was out towing Ripple, finally deciding that the closer it was to the back of the boat, the better.

        

 At about 6:30, we decided to turn back and return to the Driftwood boatyard.  It wasn't a great option but it was an option. The problem was that we had no engine and we would be coming in at low tide.  

We contemplated dropping the anchor in shallower but unprotected water, but that didn't seem like a great option given the winds and seas. We also contemplated, and came close to calling the Boat US tow service.  We decided to try the engine once more and it started!  I had left the boat in gear the last time and that was why it wouldn't start.  We were so happy when it started!  

Chrissy took this photo just before we turned in.  Definitely not the chipper skipper from 6 or 7 hours ago.

The sun was setting and although each of us took sunset photos, we didn't really appreciate what a nice sunset we had until we looked at photos yesterday.

Still, it was very low tide and we weren't sure how long we could rely on the engine.  We needed it for about an hour and a half.  

We lined up on the channel to come in and had hoped to be able to sail some on the way in reducing how much we needed the engine but again the boat was unsteerable at low speed in the wind, unless the engine was pushing us. So the engine was just going to have to work.

As we started into the channel, the depth finders were both reporting levels that I  had never seen before.  The Hoot draws 4'6" of water.  We were getting readings in the low 4's, then down in the 3's. Dragging bottom.  Throttling up the engine to push us through, backing off when we got more water. Temp going up as we pushed her hard, going back down when I could back off.  This process repeated over and over for over  an hour of gut wrenching nail biting agonizing as darkness had settled on us in the channel. 

Chrissy readied the boat for docking.  We would dock straight into the wind and on the opposite side than we have been docked all this time.  She set up the dock lines.  She moved our dock cushions. She redied Ripple.  And then she helped me navigate a completely dark and shallow channel, no moonlight even because of the clouds. (She never asked and I never told her how shallow it was and how often we were dragging the soft bottom of the channel, but I think she knew every time I pushed the engine. She was everything you could ask for in a  sailing mate.  She gives me strength.

Sunset was at 7:40 and we arrived to the dock at 9:00. As we inched to the dock, she yelled that she had cast the lines onto the dock, boat in neutral, I hopped onto the dock and secured the bow line to the cleat, for the first time sure that this day was over.  I tied off the stern line and we were safely tied up.  I hopped aboard and gave Chrissy a big hug. We made it!!

In a matter of minutes, a nerve shot happy hour started as we settled our nerves from what had started so well but had turned into a very rough afternoon.  

Chrissy forced a smile at dinner but we both had very frazzled nerves.

Yesterday we took the day off and celebrated a quiet Easter. We had our steak dinner aboard the Hoot, but saved the champagne for another time. It was nice to relax and not work on any boat projects all day long.   We earned a day off!

Chrissy looked spectacular in her Easter dress and the memory of Saturday had become not so bad.

We shared a lot of laughs, a few glasses of wine, talked about all the lessons that we have learned and the things that we have to fix before we can get to shakedown III.

We had made a trip to the marina yesterday afternoon for a hot shower and to sit on a bench and just relax with a drink. 

The nice lady Ann from the marina had left an envelope with keys for us under an ash tray.   When we picked up the keys, it hit me.  

She knew it was our first time onto a mooring ball.  She knew we might be late arriving. She had reserved for us the absolute easiest spot to find, the easiest to get to....an end spot, the first one available to boats our size.  S  13.

S 13!  I'm not superstitious.