well my tropical storm Hanna story
my
boat is on the hook near baltimore's inner harbour so when we heard hanna was coming our way we decide run to a creek thats close to the house and hole up. so saturday morning we set out with the
generator strapped down so we can watch tv to keep an eye on the storm. it starts raining on the way to the creek with me at the
helm and the wife below staying dry, running the main under a reef and the
engine for back up and control. we turn in to the creek and i pull down the main with just
10 mins to the hiddy hole and the
wind picks up. now let me descibe the hiddy hole i was going to, its a creek with about 5 feet in
depth that is narrow getting in and then it opens up in to a cove about 100 yards across. its surronded by by a very wooded park with a pier that i was going to tie the stern of the
boat to, so its a great spot if TSHTF getting to shore is easy. well back to the day, about 5 mins after i pulled down the main the
wind picked up big time my guess is 40 knots and i was motoring just fine at 3 knots in to the wind. then flump the genny got grabbed by the wind
and it opened about 5 feet from the top of sail for about 10 feet. i was planning on pulling the
sails when i got to the hole. well the boat did an instant u turn, and headed down wind as soon as i tried to turn in to the wind at all the boat tried to broach. well the wife balled up in to a little ball and the boat took off like a rocket, with me just keeping heading.i saw an old fort that is an island with 20 foot walls, i decide to try to come around leeward and cut the sail loose. well as i came to the fort i still could not turn in to the wind (the
knot gauge said 7 something knots running with the wind and waves ) to get in front of it. so knowing the area i decided to sail across ( if you can call it that ) the bay about 4 miles to where the
water gets shallow and ground her. well i make it in to another cove and she slides in nicely on the sandy bottom. i then run up forward and see how bad the genny was, it twisted the foil so bad i could not get the sail down or out, it just knoted the foil around the headstay. so after about 5 mins of cutting the genny flew free, but now we had turned beam to the wind and waves and are getting pounded. i could now get to the
radio so i grab it and call for the coast guard and guess what when running with the wind the
water got to my
vhf and killed it, i mean it turns on but wont do anything. so i go topside to get the ditch bag with the portable
vhf and stuff, and find it gone, so i grab the
cell phone and call the coast guard and inform them what happened and that we are fine. so i go topside to start the
generator and the cord snapped, so no 110 volt and then the wife tells me her
cell phone battery is almost dead, and i did not bring mine. well we wound up nicely beached at about a 45 degree list to port.
on to the recovery.