Lat: 29 15.968′ S
Lon: 177 56.923′ W

The front that we were trying to weather here in Denham Bay finally arrived with lots of rain and wind. Our anchor has held well, but it’s been a long few days. Yesterday in particular was one that we won’t forget anytime soon.

My anchor watch started about 5am. After a night of intense rain, the dinghy was full of water, so after breakfast, Ash bailed it out, and I jumped in to work on the outboard engine a bit. It wasn’t running well at all and there was a leak in the fuel line on the fuel bulb output, so I drained the fuel and the seawater that had washed into the line, replaced the crimp clamp on the bulb with a good hose clamp, and started it up again. The leak was fixed and it seemed to run better, but we probably need some fresh fuel and a little work with the throttle (more to come with the outboard). This was also in preparation for taking the engine off the dinghy and stowing it so that it wouldn’t be damaged by the strong gusts of wind off of the mountains.

While back on board discussing the dinghy engine improvement, and getting ready to hoist it aboard, a particularly strong and sustained gust of wind blew over the boat and lifted the solar panels from their horizontal position, where they were attached on one side, to a vertical position and held them there. The gust must have been over 50 knots, and it held them there for a couple of seconds. I stared at them for a second or two and then jumped up to brace them before they crashed down, but it was too late and they crashed back down, splitting the frames apart at the corners. We managed to take them off during a lull in the wind and started repairs immediately in the drizzle. I have a suitable piece of right angle aluminum on board and we started hack-sawing pieces to reinforce the corners.

Hacking away

The gusts kept coming with incredible strength. The stronger ones would lift the water off of the choppy whitecaps and blow a white cloud of spray across the water and then up into the air as a cloud of mist that was often over 100 feet high. We were in the middle of solar panel repairs when another ferocious gust caught the dinghy and capsized it as it was tied behind the boat. The oars and fuel tank were floating in the chop and the outboard was nowhere to be seen. I was working in swimming trunks and a foul weather jacket, so I quickly tossed off the jacket and jumped in to grab the oars and fuel jug. With them stowed on board, we started the job of getting the dinghy flipped back upright. We could then see that the outboard was still firmly attached to the transom, but fully submerged of course. Once the dinghy was flipped back upright, we finished the job that was interrupted by the solar panel incident, hoisting the outboard onto its mount. We stowed the bimini to avoid ripping or damaging it in the gusts and then had an hour or so to work on the outboard as the sun was setting, rinsing it with fresh water, draining the water from the cylinders and generally starting the process of trying to recover it.

We were tired and a little down when we sat down for a dinner in the dark and windy evening. We’d barely started eating when an unmistakable sound started — hail. Pea sized hail was raining down on the boat as lightning flashed nearby. I pulled a jacket over my head and went out to cover the chartplotter. We could only laugh. What a day.

Damage control with a smile

Last night the wind blew strong a lot of the night, with sustained speeds as strong as the earlier gusts. We were so busy yesterday that we didn’t notice that the anchor bridle had tangled itself with the chain while the boat was moving about at anchor the night before. The movement is pretty strange. Gusts come from almost any direction, although they seem to come from a couple of dominant directions over any given period. In the calms between the gusts, the boat starts to set to the tide or current and often in a completely different direction from the wind. When the next gust comes, the boat is quickly pushed over the water until the anchor chain pulls tight against the bridle and the boat turns into the wind. I was concerned that the chain being tangled in the bridle would chafe through in the night, but we sorted it out this morning and it was in pretty good shape. We slowly drag a little with the strong, shifting winds, but not nearly enough to be concerned about in the large, empty bay.

We’d definitely rather be on our way to Fiji, but there’s also a nasty low that is going to be sitting right in our path in a few days. For now we’re trying to finish up repairs in the less rainy spells and get to the point that we’re just waiting on weather.