CURRENT LOCATION: Anchored in Ensenada Honda, near town on Culebra
18 18.326' N, 065 17.979' W
Before we left North Carolina, Sheryl found many boating bargains offered by cruisers who had completed their journey and were having 'going-out-of-business' sales. In fact, New Bern was a great location for meeting these experienced cruisers and helping them to lighten their boats for eventual sale. We never passed up an opportunity to attend a 'nautical flea market' of any kind. One of the best finds Sheryl encountered was the Garmin GPS unit shown above (acquired for $30).
Prudence came with a slightly larger color version of this GPS, and we have that one mounted outside in the cockpit for use in navigating while we are under way. This black & white version is mounted inside and serves as our anchor alarm, clock, and nightlight. Except for those times when we are under way, this GPS unit has been on 24/7 for the past year.
One of the things I like best about this GPS is how it serves as an anchor monitor. When we put down our anchor, we mark the coordinates where the anchor touched bottom. Once these are entered into this GPS, we know exactly how far we are from the anchor at any time. In addition to this numerical measure of feet from anchor, the chartplotter function of the GPS will draw what we call breadcrumbs, marking the path over which the boat has traveled. When we initially drop anchor, we look for a pattern of breadcrumbs which looks like this:
The slightly curved line of squiggles indicate the typical anchor sailing we do from a fixed point of anchor. If I wake in the middle of the night, I generally glance at the GPS to be sure that we are still sitting somewhere along the squiggle line in order to assure myself that we have not dragged anchor. It is the best $30 piece of mind that we ever purchased.
On Friday, we woke early to take advantage of the calm winds and complete one of our hurricane de-preparation chores. When we were done, the trace on the GPS looked like what you see below. Can you tell from the breadcrumb trace what chore that might be?
Yes, that is right. We picked up our extra anchors. Since we had rowed them out in the dinghy, we were faced with the challenge of figuring out how to retrieve the well-set anchors. Our Porta-bote is not a solid enough structure to gain purchase for lifting a well-set anchor.
Therefore, we grabbed our longest docklines and headed up to the bow of the boat. We secured a dockline to the end of the 200-foot CQR chain, tied the bitter end of the Fortress rode to the same point, and let the end of the chain go overboard. Sheryl fed out the dockline, attaching a new one whenever she reached the end of her rope, while I pulled in on the rode which drug
Prudence toward the Bruce anchor. Once I got to the chain, I used the windlass to break the Bruce anchor free from the bottom. Once up, the gentle wind pushed us back to our starting point and we quickly pulled in the docklines to keep us from drifting too close to shore.
Once we had the end of the CQR chain back in hand, we untied the bitter end of the Fortress rode and repeated the process (Sheryl feeding out dockline while I pulled us toward the Fortress). With the Fortress on deck, we pulled in the dockline and collected about half of the CQR chain to bring us back to a more reasonable scope for normal conditions. Here is the same trace with key points labeled:
After dragging
Prudence around a 500-foot span of the harbor in hand-over-hand fashion, we took a break for breakfast. Please note that only
occasionally do we do more before 9:00am than most people do all day. The previous day, Thursday, was another example of intense early morning activity.
Once we woke to find that the storm had passed and the weather was beautiful, we had to take the first steps to making
Prudence liveable again. Otherwise, we would be paying for another night at the guesthouse. Mainly, we had to clear out the items in the head and take the solar panels off of our bed. Sheryl worked on the former while I worked on the latter. Before I had to leave for my algebra class, we had installed and re-connected the wires on the solar panels, lashed fenders and jerry cans in their appropriate positions up top, and replaced the bimini, dodger, and connector canvas on its frame. After class, there was little energy remaining in our bodies, so the rest of the chores were put off until Friday.
After breakfast on Friday morning, we gave ourselves a little more living space down below by bending on the mainsail and staysail. These are not trivial tasks, as we had to re-rig all the reefing lines, and we took the opportunity to lubricate the tracks and coat the staysail hanks with anti-corrosive spray. With much effort, we had these chores complete before Sheryl had to leave to do her regular Friday job of adult supervision at the beach for Abbie's school. The only sail which remains below is the genoa, and we plan on continuing to sleep with that sail until hurricane season is officially over.
So, on this Saturday morning, things are pretty much back to normal here aboard
Prudence. We plan to enjoy this two-day stretch without land-based obligations distracting us from what we really want to do. And, other than a few more general boat chores, what we really want to do now is take a deep breath and relax. Let's hope that our routine checks of the National Hurricane Center's website will allow us to do just that.