We left Sturgeon Bay just after lunch and dropped anchor in Egg Harbor around 4pm. It was a relaxing sail that got a little zesty as we turned into the harbor but with Mr. Westerbeke’s assistance (our iron sail) we had little problem getting settled in. We love our new “Big Mama” Anchor and thankfully there was very good holding in the bay. During our two night stay we had some pretty big winds associated with thunderstorms bear down on us. I’m glad we were in a “protected” harbor!
During the day, there were a lot of folks enjoying the beach and some PWC – Jet Skis charging around the harbor but the evenings and nights were quiet and peaceful – just us and the pelicans. The full moon rose over the Door Peninsula the first evening and was a lovely melon color – very bright that left a pinkish/orangish glitter path from the lan to our boat. It was quite warm and humid but there was a constant gentle breeze that made it comfortable enough.
We enjoyed being out of the crowded marina in Sturgeon Bay and swinging on our anchor. We cooled off by dipping our feet in the water. Spent most of the day reading and watching the activity of the harbor.
Wednesday morning we picked up anchor to sail to Menominee – a short 12 mile crossing of Green Bay. Like most sails, it started out lovely a little hazy, comfortable temps, virtually no waves and a decent breeze. We settled in for a great sail – right on the rum line – a nice straight short sail – we’d be in by noon before the wind picked up in the afternoon. No worries. HA!
I don’t want to see this wind speed again out on the Lake!
Green Bay kicked our A**. After about an hour, we noticed some storm clouds forming in the distance. Harold checked the radar and sure enough a storm was brewing. We set to work reducing sail and before we could get the foresail rolled up the winds hit us hard, making it impossible to finish – with the wind so strong our jib sheets got all tangled around the furler and the anchor – above and below and the sail was flogging around partially furled. There wasn’t much we could do at that point for the sail so we tried heaving to – a maneuver useful in strong wind when you need to calm things down. We’ll, we’d never had the opportunity to practice heaving to in this strong of a wind before and we quickly found that it was not a good decision. We heeled severely and immediately turned to run with the storm – that proved to be a good strategy and even thought the storm was kicking up winds up to 49 MPH and we were sailing over 9 we felt mostly in control. It was a very good thing we were far enough away from shore to safely run with the storm. I went up front to try to untangle the jib sheets and got some wraps off (in the rain, in the wind, in the waves) but couldn’t completely get it untangled. The whole thing blew through in about 20 minutes – thankfully. The wind settled back to a reasonable level – 5-8 mph light enough that we were able to bring down the foresail, untangle the mess, put some more wraps on the drum, raise the sail, and then furl. Of course, then we had to get back on track. Then as a cruel joke, the wind petered out and we had to motor sail the rest of the way to Menominee.
Hull speed for Reflection is 7.3 – Running with the storm doing 9.5
We took a slip at the Menominee Marina right by the harbor office where we’ve learned we are on the live web cam (menomineemarina.com). We checked our rigging. The great news is we have no rips or tears in the sail, the rigging is good, and we made it through the storm. The bad news is the bridle we use when anchoring was drying on the deck when the storm hit and was lost overboard so we need to get a replacement. It takes some of the load off the anchor chain/bow roller while we are are anchor and keeps the tugging lower in the water to reduce drag and stress.
The other casualty was the handle on one of our coffee mugs (the green one) broke off. That was the only thing that broke so I think that’s pretty good. Of course anytime the boat heels over that far, some items down below shift. What a mess! So, the first thing we did was put the cabin back in order. The second thing is have some lunch. Usually when I know we are going to be in transit, I make up some wraps for an easy lunch on on water, but I didn’t this time because we’d be in by noon. Then I needed to lay down – after a short snooze and some more ice water, we saw sailboats heading out for the Wednesday night regatta. There were 12 boats that we watched through about half of the course. It was a lovely evening. We did hit the switch to the air conditioner for overnight as the breeze quit and it was still hot and humid. We are also close to the sidewalk and road so it was quieter than the city sounds. We slept really well.
Lessons learned and relearned:
1. Always check the weather before venturing out – we had the radio on monitoring any coast guard advisories and heard none. The night before the forecast was favorable with no mention of storms.
2. Reef early! We know this but we need to step it up when faced with the presence of a storm – those suckers move fast.
3. Our boat is awesome, and she took care of us in conditions we had never experienced before and held strong.
4. We can take down the foresail underway and make corrections – it’s not fun, it’s not comfortable, but it can be done. I had the strength and stamina to crank that sails halyard up non-stop to the top before collapsing on the bench to catch my breath, I’m sure the adrenaline gave me a turbo charge!
5. We are thankful that we replaced the old outhaul car on the main sail. We had no problem bringing the main in even in the heavy weather. With the old one it would have been impossible.
We are in Menominee for a few days of recovery, waiting on a package, as well as, enjoying the festivities for the fourth of July.
Sailing – quite an adventure!