Heavy Going

After sending out my noon report yesterday the wind picked up and so did the seas. At 1.30 PM we were moving well at 6 kt SW but the boat was taking a pounding so I decided to heave to with the double reefed mainsail and the staysail. Just as well. Soon after we hove to we started hearing a banging. It did not sound serious - more like a banging door or shifting box - but had to be investigated. I found it on the second search topside. The plow anchor had slipped off its roller sometime during the night and was banging on the side of the bow. I had a quick look for damage as I brought in the anchor and lashed it on the foredeck and was pleased to see that Scotty's stainless steel anchor protection plate at the bow had done it's job well. There may have been some minor denting and I will check that later. Of course it was my screw up. Normally I lash down the anchor either to the roller or back on the foredeck. I simply forgot. I set up the boat for heavy weather, e.g. jack lines and life lines out but missed the anchor. That is another lesson that I am unlikely to forget.

While I was tending to he loose anchor I opened the lid to the anchor well to see if there was room for stowing it there. I was shocked to see that the anchor well was full almost to the top with water. Just then a wave swept over the bow and filled the well to overflowing. It appears that the lower drains were either blocked or partially blocked and unable to cope with the ingress of water. It appeared that the drain holes at the upper level were working. Somehow the boat had managed to beat at over 6 kt into a heavy sea with a nose full of water. It is just as well that the chain locker section below is relatively small. It was impossible to clear out all of the chains, anchors, and spare anchor from that area to bail out the well and unblock the lower drain holes in the rough conditions, so Pachuca will have to sail on as is.

At about 6 PM Brenda commented that the wind had seemed to ease, and indeed it was below 20 kt. I resumed sailing on a starboard tack by easing off the weather sheet on the backed staysail. We sailed at about 3 kt for the entire night.

It had not been the best of days: near gale conditions, boat getting damper and damper, the anchor and chain locker problems, and Brenda still seasick. We had been shipping serious water into the bilge all day and I must investigate whether it is coming in from the bow because of the flooded anchor well, or the stern, which would have to be a drain hose. This was a big disappointment to me.

But there had been some successes. Brenda said that the boat had been hove to the best that she had seen. Indeed, it had been riding at about 40 degrees to weather. Also, the Rutland wind generator had started freewheeling in the strong winds and I managed to lash it down by using patience instead of blundering in and risking horrible injury from the fast-spinning blades. The cabin was comparatively dry, moisture creeping in principally from my wet weather gear or the occasionally overflowing bilge.

At 2 AM the AIS anchor alarm went off and Brenda woke me up. A ship was going to approach within one mile of the boat. Because the visibility was so poor I decided to hail him. On both calls I identified myself as a sail boat 12 miles ahead. I got no verbal response but we watched the ship make a turn of about 20 degrees for Portland. The conditions at this time were sill rainy and near gale, with winds 25-30 kt and huge seas.

Just before dawn Brenda woke me up and told me that the wind had picked up and Pachuca had was now heading SW instead of SE. This represented the switch to the West wind that we had been pinning our hopes on. The boat was riding well making about 4 kt so I made a cup of coffee and waited until daylight. I then went to the cockpit, went to manual steering, eased the sheets, and fell off the wind to a beam reach. Immediately the boat speed jumped to 6 kt. As noon approach we were about 95 nm off the infamous Oregon coast heading S at 6.5 kt. The seas were still rough but we were moving in parallel with the waves. We were taking regular hits from gusts of up to 40 kt. Things were looking better. Brenda got up and prepared a chicken meal in the pressure cooker, we started seeing patches of blue sky with some sun, and the Heineken beer was as cold as ever.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com