My Bed
01 May 2013 | Marathon, Florida
Ann
I don’t think I should obsess about my bed as much as I do. I sleep well in my bed, and I feel excited when I get into it. I’ve been thinking about my bed, because I couldn’t sleep in it for three days, and I missed it.
We waited in Isla Mujeres for 10 days, waiting for our next weather window. What we had wasn’t a window, but more like a mouse hole. The day before we left I cooked, and we stowed the boat for the 300 mile passage. Kara and I took Sturgeron, and Dave put on a Scopalamine patch, to prevent seasickness. We figured it would take us about 48 hours to sail to the Dry Tortugas, an archipelago at the end of the Florida Keys. I didn’t sleep well the night before our intended departure. The wind was howling in the anchorage. I woke at dawn, and Dave was looking at our weather sources. Since it was Sunday, Chris Parker the weather guru would not be on the SSB. The winds were high, but due to subside in the afternoon. Dave agreed to wait a few hours, to let the wind abate. I went back to bed, my cozy bed. Two hours later it was still blowing in the 20’s in the lee of the island, but he couldn’t wait any longer.
Leaving the anchorage was not too bad, and the wind was from behind us. We were still sheltered by the island, and we rocketed on our way. We wondered if the island was accelerating the wind, or sheltering it. Once we were North of Mujeres we knew. We had been sheltered, and were in 30 to 35 knots of wind. We had left in a gale! Our rum line, the straight line we wished to follow, was a loose beat, but we sailed a beam reach, which sent us in a more Northerly direction. It was a horrible day, with the seas building from the high winds. After an hour we thought about turning back, but gave it a little more time. By 10:30 AM we couldn’t return to Isla Mujeres, it would be sailing directly into the wind. I whispered to Kara that the winds would die, and then the seas, and then repeated it to myself, part mantra, part prayer. Finally in the mid afternoon the winds dropped below 30, and by evening it had calmed to the mid-20’s. When it was gale force, Dave said “20 knots will feel great.” It didn’t really, because the seas were still over 10 feet. It was a hard night, and we slept in our sea berths. My bed in the v-berth was pounding into the waves.
The next day the winds abated below 20, and the seas also dropped below 6 feet. Things were much better, but we were all so exhausted that we couldn’t enjoy the improvement. We were waiting for the wind to die as the GRIB files predicted. The wind never died, and by nightfall returned to the mid 20’s. On night two I went forward and found the V-berth awash. The chain locker had leaked, again. We keep thinking we have fixed this problem, but we only find out our mistake when we are pushing the bow through gallons of water. In the head (the bathroom) the five gallons of fresh water we keep there had jumped its lashings spilling fresh water. At the same time the bottle of vegetable oil I use to lubricate the gaskets in the head, had tipped over. The boat felt like a colossal mess.
I was sleeping in the port sea berth when I heard a new sound. It sounded like the anchor was banging into the bow. I had tied the anchor to the bow, but had tried a new way. The old ways kept chaffing, so I tried wrapping the anchor with line. Chaff had won again, and then the anchor jerked sharply and caused the chain to jump over the cleat I had secured it to. Two of my three ways to secure the anchor had failed, only the extra wrap around the cleat kept the anchor from pulling the windlass. Dave went forward and hauled the anchor back onto the bow, but took multiple waves over his head in the process. We were both shaken afterwards.
The next morning we arrived at Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas. With the anchor set we began to access the clean up. The head was the most dangerous, so I tackled that first. Then we hauled our mattresses out on deck to dry. I opened lockers and found everything on the port side was soaked. It was going to take a long time to dry everything. I would need to dry the lockers in shifts, since we don’t have enough room to spread everything out. By afternoon the winds shifted and began to increase. By the next day a cold front came through and we listened as two boats tried to make the Dry Tortugas, they were in gale force winds, but on the nose. We also heard from a boat that stayed in Isla Mujeres, they will probably still be there for the next week. We left in a gale, had a miserable passage, but I’m glad we didn’t wait for the winds to die before we left. We could have stayed in Isla Mujeres, but three weeks to a month would have been a long time.
We opened the windlass locker to find a label from our pail blocking the drain; hence all the water went down below. From now on I will empty that locker, tie the anchor with another line and wrap the chain. I just wish I could set an elephant on top of the anchor to keep it in place.
After two days of drying things out I finally got to put the sheets back on my bed. I climbed under my comforter and exhaled. I was in my favorite bed in the world.