After the wind

I pointed out yesterday the the weather forecast greatly underestimated the wind speed. It peaked at about 35 knots. The big concern is of course that the anchor will drag. To a lessor extent there is always the possibility that the ground tackle (anchor, etc.) will break. We dragged a couple of times in Pago Pago with 200 feet of chain and 150 feet of rode. Here I only have about 100 feet of chain out. But the water is only 10 - 20 feet deep depending on the tide. Well, we didn't drag.

Since we are in a river we are subject to the flow of the river in addition to the impact of the wind and tide. The current is from the west. The wind varies between the NE, E, and SE. This creates a constant wind against current impact of the waves in the river. They are, in a few words, short, steep, choppy, and ugly. When the wind is light the trip to the marina is unpleasant, When the wind is up the trip is very wet. Since there is no fetch the waves don't get high, maybe a foot and one half at the peak. But the dinghy just bounces all the way into shore. Not fun.

Last night as predicted the wind dropped to almost nothing. Not good. I had forgotten to close the boat up. At 2 AM I awoke covered in mosquito bites. I did not fall back asleep for several hours.

Fair winds and following seas :)