A not so funny thing happened a while ago. It changed the way we think about being on a mooring, and we now have a tendency to rely exclusively on our own gear.
While we were in El Salvador, we ended up staying at Bahia Jaltepeque. This is a fast flowing estuary, with currents
up to 6 knots when the tide was either incoming, or outgoing. It being an unfamiliar place, and being given
advice that a mooring ball would prevent us from swinging into other boats, we
decided to go with a local guy that had put in 30+ cement blocks for those
cruisers wishing to feel more secure, either on a day to day basis, or when
leaving the boat for an extended period of time. We were happy, until we weren’t.
While local lore said that a micro-burst (not really sure what a micro-burst is, as hurricane would have been a better word) hadn’t occurred in
this bay for almost a hundred years, we were “fortunate” to be there when one
hit. With the vhf radio on, and blow by
blow (hahaha) announcements coming from various boats in the fleet, we heard of
speeds clocking ever upwards. We weren’t
so lucky to be able to sit in the cockpit calmly assessing the situation, as we
were in the middle of a full teak deck restoration project. The cockpit was full of our storage boxes,
and various other detritus that had to be removed from the deck for it to be
worked on. This included 2 loose propane
tanks. With winds screaming upwards of
70 knots (for those of you out there that are not familiar, this is a Category
1, verging into Category 2, hurricane), we had a few unplanned projects we
needed to see to, immediately. Rightly so, Ron
thought it prudent to disengage the bottles prior to them doing some real
damage, like exploding, while I was down
below securing the multiple wine and liquor bottles that we had just purchased
the day before, but had yet to stow.
Again, as we were in full-blown (hahaha, again) work mode, I was also in
the middle of repainting a cupboard down below.
Not willing to discard the container of turpentine that contained the
white enamel soaked paintbrush (I thought perhaps I might need another coat), I
had left it on the counter, along with the remnants of our recently consumed
dinner. It, along with upwards of 10
glass (of course) bottles, went flying across the salon sole. Both Ron and I had our hands full.
I won’t bore you with the details, with two exceptions. With me slipping and sliding on the pitching
floor, I discovered that the red slop causing me to lose my grip, was not only
red wine, but my red blood. Seems one of
those bottles decided to cause a bit of damage.
This combined with the white turpentine made for an unholy mess down
below. Ron was dealing with his own
issues up top. At one point, he looked
up to see one of our neighbors screaming past, and wondered where in the
hellish madness that we were in, was he going.
30 seconds later, and he realized that our neighbor was not on the move,
BUT WE WERE. Rapid fire thinking had our
anchor chain screaming out of the chain locker, bringing us to a stop several
minutes later.
We found out later that the winds topped out at 74
knots. Exciting stuff. I believe that this freak event was also chronicled in Latitude 38. We were famous.
A few months later we needed to make a move, and requested
that the guy come and grab the, obviously broke, bridal that was still attached
to our cleats. An hour of diving came
back with the message that we were actually still attached to the mooring,
albeit in a different place than where we had started from. Which brings us to Ecuador…..
Here in Bahia de Caraquez, there is a mooring field attended
to by Puerto Amistad, and is again in a swift flowing river. Upon arrival, with memories of El Sal
uppermost in our minds, we wondered about the security of the balls, and
whether our 50,000 pounds of fiberglass and wood, would again take us for a
ride in the event of a blow. We opted
out, and decided instead to trust our ground tackle that had saved our asses in
hurricane force winds.
What did we learn?
- Trust the gear you have on your boat. If you have crap gear, than get good stuff
you can trust.
- Take everything that anyone tells you, about anything,
with a grain of sand.
- When done with a project, put stuff away.
- Box wine is the way to go on a boat.
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