Challenge: Reversing Waves

[kenny chaos]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Tide Tables....

That's it?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by kenny chaos

That's it?

Not really... coupla other things... just being a smart ass..

[Bash]

local knowledge is huge in dealing with such situations. Down in the Sea of Cortez, around La Paz, the Coromuel Wind is a fairly predictable pattern where a southerly comes up around sundown, blows all night, dies around 1100h the next morning. Down there you just have to know not to anchor in a spot where a southerly will ruin your evening.

The cruising guides, fortunately, will fill you in about such things. But there's no substitute for learning the tips from locals. Hummingway's tip about looking for flotsam on the beach is a great example of this.

(This is a great reason, by the way, that we should all be contributing to the new cruising wiki.)

[SurferShane]

Keep an eye on the weather map and forecasts. I had an out of season SW gale nearly put my boat on the rocks in the middle of summer. These winds are extremely uncommon over here at that time. Luckily I had a small stern anchor out and was on a good holding ground. To turn the boat into the wind I had to pull the main anchor, which by this time was conveniently under the bow, and swim it into the seas on a surfboard. Total mayhem especially considering the seas were being generated over a hardly 700 m fetch. The gust were that strong it took me a hour to get to a safe mooring 300 m across the harbor after being blow way downwind.

I would not like to have been in a similar situation in an open anchorage. Might have almost been time to radio a tug and/or phone the insurance company. Since I have been looking at a bigger anchor and have cleared the barnacles that were fouling the prop.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I always have my radar course plotted to get me out of an anchorage at night before I go to sleep, and the boat ready to go with the tender lifted and secure.

Thanks. The thought process I was coming from just involved "lifting the dingy". "Lifted and secure" is a step further.

Since I carry two dinks, one is already on the stern at night. The other one get lifted out of the water, but that's it. Just pick it up with the main halyard and leave it a foor or so out of the water.

Gotta rethink things because "secure" has up to now only meant that bottom growth couldn't reach it and theives might be discouraged. Not enough "security" for an anchorage escape plan.

[Bash]

Top ten reasons we never leave the dink in the water overnight:

1. dink doesn't spend the night rubbing its outboard against the bootstripe
2. dink doesn't make that constant "chop! chop! chop! noise in the wavelets
3. dink in the davits creates a barrier from someone climbing up our sugar scoop
4. it really irritates the barnacles to be out of the water all night
5. I won't have to worry about the dink if I need to cut and run
6. dink harder to steal than the last one, which we didn't lock to the pushpit (Anyone seen it?)
7. it drains the water that mysteriously accumulates between the hull and the sole
8. hanging the dink discourages sea lions from spending the night aboard
9. hanging the dink makes the owner feel that the davits were a good investment
10. my boat looks bigger with the dink in the davits