Today it is May 17,
2015
21:06pm
I am afraid. Last
night I dragged anchor and didn't realize until I looked out the
hatch. There was no other feeling. My boat was sliding down the
anchorage and was almost upon the next vessel when I looked out.
Unfortunately that was also the night when I thought that my anchor
would hold and so didn't need the additional anchor to be prepped. I
slowly was able to pull the anchor and rode from the lazerette and
ready it to drop. I had also gone below and grabbed the oar hoping to
not need it to push off from the other boat. I stood there in the
driving rain, wearing nothing but my underwear, as I drifted within
20 feet of the other boat missing both it and it's anchor. I'm not
sure just how lucky and unlucky you can be in a single moment but
that was one of my golden ones.
So now I am scared
of what tonite might bring. I have given up on have a prepped anchor
and was able to row my boat forward to drop the second anchor at a 45
degree angle to the first. Hopefully it sets properly, but it's a
fluke and they set quickly. Unless they don't and they drag.
I also extended the
scope to almost 10 to 1 at low tide. I drifted into the reeds at low
tide but I don't care. The anchor must hold. I must be able to sleep
soundly at night. There is expected to be another thunderstorm with
gusts tonight. If my anchors do not hold then I must give in and say
that I can not handle this boat. There is nothing more to it.
Anchoring is the mainstay of cruising. It is what allows you to rest.
It provides the comfort in the darkness while the winds and rain
thrash around you.
I have insurance
anyone I hit. And if it's just me hitting the beach then so be it.
18 may 2015 11:45
It held. I stayed
awake until 1am watching and jumping up with every new gust. Just
tracking and tracking, even ran the gps software on the Ipad to see
if it showed any movement. Then I slept but only til just before 7am.
Awaking with a start, only to see everything in place. Nauseous with
exhuastion and worry, I could only lay there. It's a beautiful
morning. I finally got up to get stuff done.
Julia and the kid's
serendipitous meeting yesterday on the road really turned my
attitudes around. My last entry was quite dour, even though they had
just left and I was in good spirits. The boat though is a huge source
of stress. I just don't know how long I can keep this up. If the
anchors hold for the rest of the week, if I can keep the water
leaking in from becoming an issue, if I can learn to stabilize or
just deal with the massive amounts of rocking. To make it through. To
feel a glimmer of hope and reassurance that I've made the right
decision.
So now I sit at a
diner as my clothes wash next door. I really hope my solar charger
comes soon. End of the month I might sign up for a data plan, see if
the verizon phones can be tethered to a computer.
21 May 2015 13:39
Once again at the
Seminole Library charging my electronics and checking on things.
Storms are coming this weekend and since I also didn't want to deal
with all of the chucklehead traffic for the holiday, I moved the boat
to the east side of the peninsula. There's nothing there to make
contact with if I drag, except for a slowly rising seabed. It's about
4 feet deep, or it was when I left so I hope nothing went wrong. I
don't remember if I raised by keel all the way up or not. That sucks.
I keep forgetting those little things. And I can't seem to figure out
how to connect to the library's wifi with my laptop. So I'll just
charge the pc and ipad. I think there is something wrong with the
dock water at the VA so I'm going to switch to just drinking bottled
from Walmart, so adding $20/month to expenses. I seem to be doing
ok, but I need to figure out how to eat healthier. At this point I'm
eating canned foods and they are stuffed with sodium- the clam
chowder was 70% of the daily allowance on it's own! I'm not drinking
enough water to clear out the sodium so I'm gonna need to solve these
issues. Healthy foods that don't require refrigeration or cooking. I
should just buy the sprouts thing so I can end up like a cow. Or I
need to learn how to cook on the single burner. Tomorrow I'll go to
my storage unit and get a larger pot and knife. I'll also need to
order a gear hammock ($7) or a toy hammock ($9)- they use a three
point connection which would be a great idea for the V.
So far I'm down to
<$200 available on each of the credit cards. Wow. Crazy how much
money I've spent, and the payments for those cards isn't coming due
till the 23rd. I think it will be about $2k on the 23rd
and then next month will be another $1800. I'll have the money as
long as nothing big comes up. I
need to remember to
go to the yard on saturday morning to move those boards.
Stardate friday, may
22, 2015 16:43
Solar controller has
arrived! Installed and operating at about 1600, solid green light.
Need to get a small zip tie from storage (and I was just there
dammit) to attach it to ceiling. Solar panel is on the deck but not
attached- except to some rope tying it to the mast. I'm trying to
figure out the best place for it, the good thing is that I didn't
install it before I left the yard. The place I originally planned
would be caught by the jib sheets and either tear the panel off or
just cut through the sheets.
But I am now getting
1.5 amps or so into the battery. I figure that I've been using the
boat for 14 days, probably averaging 15 minutes of led lighting (3W)
per day so about 1 amp(?!).Seems low but probably even less, I've
mostly been reading with the backlight on the nook or watching ipad
movies. Consider about 15 minutes on average for the vhf(7W) as well
which is a little higher at 2 amps. So theoretically, the battery
should be fully charged in 2 hours of direct sunlight. I should have
good sun until 1930 then the angle gets severe, but by 1800 or 1830
it should be charged and the light should start blinking. Well the
battery probably wasn't fully charged at the store and had been
sitting for a bit.
I'm in a new
anchorage, well actually the very first anchorage, a couple hundred
meters from the boat launch at the War Veterans Park. It might
actually be a better location overall since there is a public
bathroom and drinking fountain with decent water. The main difficulty
is the distance to shore, in the inflatable raft it's a pain to row
in anything more than a light breeze. Tide is going out so, I'll wait
for a slack tide to head into shore for refilling my water jugs.
Today I finally came
to accept that it's not so bad out here. I've been reading and
sleeping and taking my meds again. I stopped for a couple days
because I needed to stay awake for the storm and to make sure my
anchor didn't drag. Here I'm not so worried as there really aren't
any boats for me to crash into, well except for the marina on the
other side of the channel- but that's a good ways off. Wishful
thinking.
So anyways, I
started to understand that it isn't so bad, yeah, there's lots of
things horribly wrong but I actually have gone sailing ON MY OWN BOAT
a half dozen times in the past couple of weeks. That's more than the
last 5 years or more. Now that I'm at a comfortable anchorage I'm
also feeling less restless. This is a big thing. I'm not feeling
rushed. There is a storm coming up in a couple of days and I'm trying
to batten down and figure out what to do. I've got my anchors out in
a 180 degree fashion, which means my anchor lines are a bit twisted-
should cause a problem as they can take a bit of abuse. Hopefully.
1709 and the light
is still burning on the controller. Yay! I'm recharging!
I think I'm spending
too much on food. Dropped another $15 for lunch but it was soo good
(Mexican chile verde w/ pork). That's in addition to the $7 fried
chicken I had last night and the who knows how much the day before.
Add in the $2 yogurts, $3 bag of veggies, $7 bowl of dates (though
that will last a week or so). Monday the auto pay on my credit cards
will go through and anything I buy after that should go on the July
bill. Which will include a sprouting kit, hammocks, and stuff.
That's all for now.
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