AT LEAST THREE LOG BOOKS
January 5, 2012
As I was going through some of the documents we brought home, some to stay and some to return to the boat, I was reminded of the fact that we keep three logs, of sorts. Officially, we are supposed to have a fourth and perhaps even a fifth one aboard to be strictly legal but the Coast Guard does not hassle boats, as opposed to ships. The first one is the Maintenance Log which shows repairs and upgrades. The second is the Ship’s Log. Even the small versions are called that even though we use it for the boat. That one contains the abbreviated notations of significant things such as time/location entries, crew status and destinations among other things. We note some non-boating stuff such as world events of major impact to America. The real log is not a log at all but more like a journal of departure times, intermediate notes underway and general stuff we wish to remember later. I view it as important editorial stuff. That spiral notebook has other reminders of events of specific days. It has been wet, really wet a few times and actually has blood stains from the crew and mystery adult beverage stains. It is torn in places and has entries written in all sorts of ink. The big rubber band keeps it open to the page of the day. Each day underway has its own page, thus we can easily see what was happening on specific days along the way. We have noted therein the birth of grandchildren, death of friends, world events and even observations of things along the way such as really big fish.
The day we left Green Turtle Cay for Fort Pierce the entries were: (March 27/28, 2011)
0630- great to have two extra souls aboard for the passage back to the states especially seasoned sailors. May set watches and head home in one day.
0925- Away from slip with engine hours 1671.5 Bluff House Marina, Green Turtle Cay
1005- under full press (sail) with 11 to 18 kts wind. Wow! She’s hooked up.
1245-Caught first fish whilst underway. 26⁰56.91N, 77⁰40.819W Not sure what it is.
1430- Boat ahead same course. We may be gaining. Five miles.
1640- Winds calm, engine on (1672). Boat ahead is still ahead but turned toward Great Sale Cay for evening anchor. We decided to continue.
1825- Barracuda on line. Fun to fight. Such a small critter to kick my rear on the reel in.
0137- Engine back on- what a sky. (1676.7)
0420- Engine off- some wind
0555- Engine back on- dead calm. Storms in the distance are spaced so we might go between. Radar is very active.
0745- In the thick of t’storms with winds 40+ kts. Big waves estimated around 12 plus in sets of three. Right on the bow and most do not board. Those that do reach the dodger intact. Pounding hard if we do not steer into them right. Too rough to use autopilot.
0955- Still raining but much quieter. Crew is tired mucho. Brighter toward Ft. Pierce. Winds down to 25kts and seas are lying (laying? Or lying?). Now we let the autopilot take over.
1045- Another catch- Bonito about 5 pounds. Let em go.
1445- Tied up at Fort Pierce. 1687 engine hours and very tired crew. Boat took a beating and only leaked through an un-dogged portlight which drenched the only clean clothes our guest had. Underway 29 hours 30 minutes.
That was a passage that gave us much excitement and took much from all aboard. In fact, 165 feet of anchor chain actually rotated in the chain locker during the heavy seas we encountered. Of course, the longer removed from the event, the higher the winds and seas and greater the danger will become part of the story. Give it a few years and it will become a passage through the eye of a hurricane.