Hurricane Hole

As Hurricane Jose passes by us in the Chesapeake Bay, we need to find ourselves a safe anchorage. The hurricane is passing by offshore, but the effects of its massive low pressure system can be felt for miles! 

The eye of the storm is only 4*W of our current position, and at our latitude, that comes out to be roughly 206nm away. This is by no means the equivalent of getting slammed by the hurricane, but the winds in the area surrounding it will be significant. We need to seek safe harbor to wait out this massive storm! 

Our options as cruisers are the following:  

1.  Tie up in a marina

2.  Anchor in a protected anchorage

3.  Sail it! 

Tying up in a marina may be the preferred choice for most boaters, as you have the security of tying up to a fixed object. The problem with this is we would be arriving new to the marina and tying up blindly to the structure we encounter. We would be considered a transient yacht, and placed in whatever slip is available. This may entail being in a narrow slip that will bang up your top sides as the storm rages over, or being set on a Tee-Head where the side of your yacht will be pummeled into the pier!

The worst thing about a new marina is you don't know the condition of the marina. The wooden piling you tie to might look find from the outside, but they could be completely eaten away by worms. As your yacht puts pressure on the wooden structure, the piling could snap off!  If you have been in a marina for a long time, you would have come to learn its tricks and know how to safely tie up for a storm. 

The next problem with marinas during severe storms is that they are subjected to the tides. If the storm floods the waterway you are in, the marina could go underwater! You would need to let your docklines out at the water rises to avoid them getting too tight. If the water is sucked away by the approaching storm, you could find yourself stuck on the bottom for days until the water flows back in. 

Back in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy came through, I hauled out Wisdom at the only marina that had space left to haul out. The travel lift slip was 10 feet deep and we drew 6.5 feet. Getting out of the water was no problem, the real dilemma came after the storm! As Hurricane Sandy passed by, she drained the bay of its water, lowering the depth in the travel lift slip do 4 feet! It took nearly 2 weeks for the water to flow back into the creek where the marina was located so that I could be launched again. 

As cruisers on a budget, getting stuck on the bottom in a marina slip for days after the storm has passed means we would need to pay for all of those days. Every day that passes could be anywhere from $45 to $90 a day, depending on the transient rate at the marina.  

The second option is to anchor in a protected area. This is certainly cheaper than tying up in a marina, but a bit of a gamble. Anchorages can either save or destroy your boat, and the outcome depends completely upon your preparation and selection. 

The first thing you want is an empty anchorage. If there are other boats around you, especially upwind from you, you may have to deal with unwanted situations.

The second thing you want to look for is the right water depth. Too deep will require too much anchor rode just to reach the bottom. Too shallow and you may hit bottom in the troughs of the waves. I prefer an anchorage that is 16 feet deep, because that gives us 10 feet under our keel.

The third thing you want is a good bottom that the anchor can dig deeply into. The ideal bottom condition depends on the anchor you are carrying. We have a Mantus anchor, which works best in sand and mud. If you have the option available to you, try to find a bottom that is soft mud covering hard mud. What happens is the anchor will sink deep under the soft mud, giving it plenty of holding power. As it gets to the bottom of the soft layer, it will be perfectly oriented to penetrate the hard bottom below. Soft bottoms can hold well, but they can also allow the anchor to creep through it. A hard bottom will lock the anchor in place and stop it from dragging. Having a soft layer above the hard layer ensures that the anchor will not slide along the surface of the hard layer, causing you to drag anchor as you careen onto a lee shore!

The fourth thing you want is plenty of room to swing. This requires a large open area where you can swing around as the wind shifts. If there is a wreck, landmass, or other boat in the way of a full circle swing, you may encounter that obstacle during the storm so it would behoove you to move to a different anchorage. 

The last thing you want to find is 360* land coverage, and preferably tall land. High land, especially cliffs will shield you from the wind, as the land itself shields you from waves. If you have any exposure to a larger body of water, huge waves can come in created by the greater fetch. Obviously, having enough swing room means that the area will be wide open, so you will still experience some wind-related issues. 

Finding this perfect place while out cruising can be challenging. Sometimes you will need to make a compromise and anchor in a less than ideal location.  

We were lucky to find this place as it offered all the needed criteria and was completely empty! The depth in the entire basin is 16 feet deep and made out of soft mud over hard sand!

While this anchorage may seem like a dream come true, the truth is we were very fortunate to find it and get into it in a timely manner. 

We were safely anchored in another river, but decided that it might be fun to go sailing today since the winds in the river (where we were very protected) were rather light. A friend of ours who was sailing further north in the bay told us that the winds were rather light today and the seas were only 1 foot tall.  The thing is, we were much closer to the passing storm, so our winds were amplified, as was the sea state!

This brings us to our thrid option, "Sail It!" The bay is rather small, so heaving to for the entire storm isn't very practically as you will probably drift into an obstacle before the storm passes. If the winds are blowing you in the direction of travel that you wish to take, you could always run before the storm to get to safe harbor and wait for it to pass.  

We went out in what we expected to be rather light conditions, only to have ourselves beaten into submission! We had a reeked sailplan up, just in case the winds would be stronger than expected, and then we met the full fury of the storm. The winds were a steady 27 knots with gusts into the 30s and waves that required us to look up at the crests! Our original destination was slightly to windward and we quickly changed our minds and ran downwind as we searched for a new place to stop. 

Luckily, all this wind gave us an incredible boost of speed! We cruised along at around 6 and 7 knots the entire way, making a 20 mile away destination seem much closer. From anchor up to anchor down, we were only moving for 6 hours, and only 2 of them were very intense as we ran before the storm. On our run, we searched the upcoming rivers for a place that was deep, protected, and the right kind of bottom.  

I figured the sailing would be intense as I was raising anchor, but the winds were blowing the same direction we wanted to be going. What only took a few hours of sailing in the storm would have been the equivalent of 2 days of beating to windward during normal weather. The lack of anchorages between these two places meant that we would have needed to spend a night anchored out in the middle of the bay, completely exposed to the ever changing weather of the bay. 

Sailiing it might seem like a fun idea at first, but I strongly recommend against it. Going out in a gale to run before the storm is extremely tiring and taxing on the yacht and the crew. Maddie was fighting off motion sickness as I had to steer us through each massive wave that tried to broach us. This was fine for a few hours during the day, but imagine if this was your plan to ride out a storm that is supposed to last 3 days?! You would die from fatigue out there! 

Cruising means that you have to be on a sailboat when the weather is far from optimum, but it also means knowing how to prepare for severe weather in a safe manner. 

Onboard Radar

I've been told repeatedly that I need to have radar on my boat to go cruising. "Crossing an ocean without radar is just plain dangerous!" Radar is one of those devices that cost a lot, not just money to buy and install a unit, but also a lot of electricity to run. Being how we have a small electric motor, we have no way of actually producing the power needed to run such a unit in a storm, especially since our solar panels would not be operational in the cloud cover.

The choice to go without radar was not chosen lightly, we simply had to look at what radar is, what is it used for, and why do we need it.

Radar is a method of detecting other objects by sending out high frequency electro-magnetic pulses and then reading the returning signal. With weather, denser clouds will reflect more of the pulses and appear as a denser object on the screen.

Radar is typically used for spotting other vessels in the distance, as well as seeing land masses and weather systems. This is really important if you plan to sail by night, especially if you plan to enter a new port in the dark. The radar screen will display any unlit vessels, as well as show you the cliffs and hills of the land masses around you.

If you are not very brave, you can also heave to outside of a new area and wait for dawn to make your entrance. With the sun, you will be able to see everything that was obscured by the darkness.

As far as seeing weather systems, this is an important facet of radar. Light clouds will appear as light signatures on the screen, while dense storm clouds will appear as heavier signatures on the screen. Radar also lets you track the direction of the storm and lets you know if you need to prepare for it or not.

Sailors feel the need to have radar on their yachts because it gives them eyes in the night, and shows them things that they do not know how to look at. We live in a technological age where we would rather stare at a screen than look out at the horizon.

As far as seeing land formations and ships in the dark, if you do not sail in the dark or enter new harbors, this is a mute point. Weather on the other hand is rather handy.

Radar displays of weather systems tells you how bad the storm will be and if it will hit you. You can track how fast it is moving and know when it will strike you and with how much severity.

I do feel that radar is very important when on inland water ways, such as the Chesapeake Bay, where sea room is limited and storms are fierce. Knowing how and when a storm will hit lets you know if you have time to run for shelter or if you need to get away from a lee shore now.

Instead of going through the expense of buying, installing, and maintaining a radar on your yacht, you can just use the one you have in your pocket!

​Your smart phone has the capability of tapping into the Doppler radars that surround you! These radars are far more powerful than anything you could carry on board, and let you see the entire system, instead of what is just a few miles around you.

​These apps are free, and work as long as you have internet signal to your smart phone!

If you are in coastal waters, you will have signal and can track these storm systems as they move around you, thus negating the need for a fancy and expensive radar system. But what about if you are off shore? How do you deal with storm systems then without the smartphone radar?

Well, all you need to do is look around you. Storm systems will pop up on the horizon and can be seen from over a hundred miles away. You can easily watch the clouds and see how they move, how fast, and in which direction. If they are constantly approaching you, it might be a good idea to get the storm sails out. If they are getting closer yet, it is time to set the storm sails.

Setting storm sails is easy to do during calm weather, not so much during the storm itself! We usually set the storm sails and wait hove to in the calm before the storm for a few hours as we await its arrival. When it hits, we then sit and wait for it to pass. Once it has moved over us, we resume sailing again as if nothing had happened.

Having radar in this situation would not change anything. You can see a storm on the horizon long before it shows up on the radar screen, and if it does hit you, you have plenty of sea way to drift in as it rages over you. There is no "out running a storm to safe harbor" in the ocean, as there is nowhere to hide. Instead, you simply need to be prepared to ride out the storms that come upon you as they do.

Based on these reasons, we have opted to forego the installation of radar on our boat as we cruise the Atlantic Ocean, and instead prefer to watch the horizon for dangers that are around us.

Collision At Sea

While cruising, we come across many ships and yachts on the water. Naturally, we are all keeping a good lookout and this lets us all avoid any problems. If I see a yacht on the horizon and that yacht sees me, we will both work our hardest to avoid running into each other.  

Sailors tend to keep their distance, as none of us want to get too close to each other. It's a big ocean after all, why get too close? Power boaters will cut it closer, as they feel their motor boat will zip along before we move. We have had some very close encounters where a powerboat insists on passing across our bow instead of going behind our stern. It is always nicer to a sailboat to pass on their stern, not only because it is less nerve wracking, but also because of the wake you create. A wake hitting a sailboat on the stern will give them a gentle push. A wake hitting a sailboat on the bow will stop them in their tracks! 

Private yachts are plentiful on the weekends, as most people with boats also have jobs. Therefore, they are working during the week. On weekdays, the kinds of boats we come across are other cruising sailors and commercial ships. 

Commercial ships can be categorized into three groups, fishing, massive cargo ships, and tug boats. The fishing boats are keeping a good lookout and tend to stay close to the coast where they work their traps. The massive cargo ships are limited to the channel as they are constrained by draft. 

When sailing along, you technically have right of way over any power boat because you are under sail, but a massive cargo ship can't maneuver around you. This means that when you are outside of a shipping channel, sail has right of way. When you are in the shipping channel, yield all right of way to the massive cargo ships.  

When offshore, there are no channels, and you once again have right of way over the container ships. I have found these captains to be very curtious when off shore. I simply hail them on the radio and tell them my position to verify that they can see me. Then they adjust course slightly to avoid any kind of close encounter. When you contact them miles apart, tensions are lower and a course correction of 1 degree will make all the difference in the world. If you wait until you can see the captains face in the bridge, tensions will be much higher and I don't think they would be as courteous about the entire situation. 

The last kind of commercial ship you will encounter would be tug boats. Honestly, these have been the worst kind of boat to deal with on the water in terms of curtesy and alertness. When pushing or pulling cargo, they will stay in the channel and the same rules apply as with massive cargo ships: yield all right of way to them. When they are not carrying cargo, they tend to cruise along next to the channel since they are not constrained to the channel by draft. This is where the problems begin.  

Tug boats are small and low, making them hard to spot off on the horizon. They also move along quickly, meaning that when you see them, they are going to be upon you very soon. The last problem is: the tug boat captains don't seem to keep any kind of lookout at all. We have narrowly avoided collisions with tugboats multiple times because they come right at us! 

Our last near miss occurred at night. We were outside of the channel and saw navigation lights approaching us. We were under sail and had our masthead tricolor light turned on, he was under power and had his navigation lights and steaming light turned on. I kept an eye on the tug figuring that it would turn to avoid a collision, but it kept its course. Naturally, the wind died and we slowed as the tug boat neared us. It got so close before turning that we could see all of its interior lights through the portholes. When we were a mere 100 feet away, he made a drastic turn to starboard as we quickly jibed to port to evade a collision. Maddie and I think that he wasn't looking and turned as soon as he saw us, which was almost too late!  

Sadly, this isn't an isolated incident. We often see tugs running next to the channel at full speed, narrowly missing other yachts as well. Our theory is that they are busy doing paper work and not looking at the water as they head from one job to the next. They are focused on work and not on the seas around them. The probably have their AIS alarm turned on, warning them of any approaching commercial ships, and ignore the rest of the boaters as the barge their way through. 

Tug boat captains also seem to have a bit of an attitude as well. We were about 10 miles off shore one time, well out of any channels and in the open waterways of the ocean. A tug boat was on a collision course with us (based on the AIS proximity alarm) so I radioed his bridge. The captain was very snarky and rude during the whole thing. We were about 20 minutes away from a collision and so I asked him to alter his course a few degrees to bring us away from a collision. The response from the captain of Arabian Sea was "This thing doesn't turn on a dime." I told him I understood that and that is why I was notifying him several miles ahead. After many other snarky comments from the captain, I saw that his heading changed by 2 degrees and our distance at closest approach increased from 0 to several miles. 

It seems that all other boats are courteous and kind on the water, paying attention to their surroundings as they share the waterways with all other boats. There are many times when I will get on the radio to let a larger craft know that I will yield around him even though I technically have right of way simply because it is easier for me to do and a common curtesy among boaters. Then you run into the tug boats, who seem to never keep a lookout and never are willing to cooperate with other boaters on the water. 

Riding a Storm Front

Weather is an unavoidable phenomenon to the cruising sailor. Day sailors have the luxury of choosing which days they wish to leave their marina berth to go sailing. Cruisers, on the other hand, are always out there. On blustery days, they will have to hunker down in a protected cove or rage on with their storm sails flying proudly.

Weather doesn't just creep up out of nowhere though. It comes in and goes out in a manner that is very visible. We found ourselves sailing along down the Chesapeake Bay between Chesapeake Beach and the Potomac River. This stretch of water offers few opportunities to duck in and wait out the weather, so we had to continue on as we saw our sky deteriorating.

We started off sailing along under clear blue skies without a cloud to be seen. As the day progressed, whisky cirrus clouds began to roll in and soon the front of a low pressure was chasing us. I laid down on the bow of the boat and stared up at the front, noticing that the clouds were moving at roughly the same speed we were, and if we could keep our speed, we might just make it to the anchorage ahead of the storm.

Usually, we reef down as a storm front approaches, but in this case, we kept on under full sail, riding along on a beam reach as the low pressure behind us slowly crept up. All went well until sunset. All of a sudden, the winds died down and our speed dropped. The moon became obscured by hazy clouds until it was fully blocked out. We were nowhere near our anchorage, but we lost the race with the sky. The low pressure front crept over us and we were now in its grasp. We quickly reeled the sails even though the winds were light because we knew that at any moment, strong gusts would start coming our way and we had nowhere to hide.

August 21, 2017: Partial Eclipse

On this date, the celestial bodies above our heads became of increasing interest to the general population. the local radio channels that usually chatter about the lives of celebrities as well as the more educated channels that discuss economics and politics all began talking about the same topic: the solar eclipse that would occur on this day.

Many people viewed this visual wonder through specialized glasses that should make it safe to stare directly at the sun, but I chose another method of observation: my sextant. 

The sextant has specialized filters that make it safe to stare directly at the sun. This is because sighting the sun at noon is an important part of finding your position on the earth! The biggest difference is that today, during the eclipse, the sun looked like a small crescent instead of the typical disc. The crescent is the only part of the sun that was not obscured by the moon.