Fawn Harbor II

Stardate September 29, 2023

Ok, it’s the next day.  We tried to leave for Vian
i Bay.  The surface wind in our little hidey hole wasn’t that bad.  Should have listened to the screaming rigging.  

The entrance to Fawn Harbor is like an hourglass, with the neck between reefs at most fifty yards wide.  Add to this a strong east wind producing heavy rollers coming down the vee of the hourglass and you have the potential for disaster.  

I tried to hail Nick as we lined up for the run out; he didn’t hear me and kept going.  Holy was!  I have *never* been in rollers like that.  I was pitchpoling, taking water over the bow, then in the next breath burying first one rail then the other.  On top of all this I had rain in my face.  All I could think of was please, engine, don’t hiccup.  Cockpit stuff was flying all over and to top it off, the rain was so intense my PFD inflated.  Or maybe I accidentally pulled the rip cord.  

I was having trouble getting distance from Nick’s boat, being hemmed in by the reef on my starboard and Nick trying to make progress through the rollers.  Several times I lost sight of him only to crest a roller and see him in the trough below.  I didn’t want to slow down because I needed steerage away from the reef.

Once we shot the gap we tried to turn to go up the coast.  I finally managed to raise him and suggest that perhaps this was not the day to try sailing.  He agreed.  So now our only option was to turn back and go back through the hourglass.  Surfing most of the way, we both headed back.  I was following my outgoing track (over reef - thanks Navionics) but slid in behind Nick.  Hit 26 feet of depth on the way back in.  Never less than 50 feet on the way out, attesting to the uneven bottom at the entrance.

Once back at anchor Nick allowed as how that sea was the roughest he’d ever been in short of a storm.  He’s been six years at sea all around the world.  Blimey.

Think we’ll wait another day…