There are amazingly beautiful days out sailing, seas are calm winds are fair. So lovely that you hate to drop anchor. Then there are those days that start out fine and turn gnarly, turning minutes to hours. Yesterday was one of those days. We checked the forecasts (yes- multiple predictions) and knew it could get zesty out there with the wind not being in an optimal direction for our destination- South Manitou. If we had made it to Manitou we could have had a relatively easy sail to Frankfort with winds in a more favorable direction.
Sometime early afternoon after leaving Little Traverse Bay, things got big. Reflection is a great boat and handled well, but sheesh, we were heeled over and thumping into some pretty big waves. The jib was getting splashed up 3-4 feet and our deck was also getting splashed. It was a good thing we had out surround up because we’d have also been soaked. I was a serious, tense sail. We were hyper alert and hanging one. Moving around was difficult so most of the journey was spent with my feet braced on the cockpit table, back to the waves, watching the rollers move away from us. Lunch – even though I had made it ahead of time was out of the question. We finally had lunch around 3:30 motoring toward Northport.
We heeled over further than we’d ever been – wind up to 20 knots and even though we were reefed we would have like to have been reefed some more, but doing that was nearly impossible in such high wind. We finally put the furling line on the rear winch and were able to reduce the foresail a bit more. When we got into Grand Travese bay we rolled main and jib up to motor into the 20 knot winds to get to Northport. The last 5 hours seemed like an eternity. Fortunately in the bay the waves were kinder to us. At some point during the sail the bottom of the sacrificial sail cloth tore away. We’ve yet to investigate if we need to do repairs or if it will be ok. Our thought is since it’s at the bottom it will be adequate until we get home.
During our bashing and heeling – moving up to 8 knots! – The oven opened up and the two pots stored in it crashed across the boat, the cast iron fry pan that stores under the oven with a nice lip to prevent it from moving, also crashed out onto the floor and slid to the low side. The microwave fortunately didn’t get more than halfway out of it’s cubby – thanks to a higher lip.
We took on some water into the sink from the drain and in the shower, and through the anchor locker from all the bashing.
We dropped anchor and breathed a sigh of relief – shared a Vernors and began the clean up. We were pretty shattered, but managed to get some chicken and rice with spinach down for dinner, had showers and went to bed. Unfortunately the wind direction made it a bit lumpy and sleeping was not good – between anchor watches and thumping and lurching…
We are certain that we handled the situation as best we could and are impressed with Reflections capabilities – which we stretched! We also know that trying to keep a schedule while sailing is a terrible idea and never willingly want to experience that again!
So, we, being the savvy fair weather sailors we are, are heading into the marina for a few days to let the gnarly weather pass, get some rest, check the boat out, and hopefully Monday will bring more favorable conditions. Sadly, we didn’t get to South Manitou before the really nasty weather starts.
I’m so thankful to be in Northport and heading to a slip in a few hours, grab some lunch and a nap!