Brand New Experience

Well, when Cheryl left you, Omar had been upgraded to a Tropical Storm due to the increase in wind speed. We had pretty well been confined to the boat since Monday when this weather started and that was not due to change soon. Being "confined" to the boat is not too bad when there is room to move around. Sailing for 3 days from Grenada we were able to wander around the boat, on deck or below, so the sense of "freedom" was not lacking. Here in Curacao, however, it is a slightly different matter. We don't have side covers so if it is raining and was it ever raining!!) there is only room for one person to stay dry on top. Since power consumption is something we are always aware of, we couldn't realistically turn on all the lights and feel the comfort of the cabin. If it is sunny outside, it is usually fairly bright below decks but we were totally socked in with the edge of the Omar hovering over us dumping rain in buckets driven by high winds, so it was dark. As Cheryl had mentioned, the wind had been a minimum of 20 kts, at times gusting steadily between 30 and 40 kts so we had to set up a watch system to make sure that first of all we didn't start drifting and secondly that no one else drifted into us.

Those are kind of the physical facts. Now for the "feeling facts". We had never experienced a Tropical Storm before and in fact had not expected to out here in the ABC's. Imagine our dismay, apprehension, catch-in-the-throat feelings when the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) posted the news that they expected Omar to become a hurricane. As I had said, we were right on the edge of the storm. To my mind, Tropical Storm is big, Hurricane is bigger so if we were on the edge of the Storm, it would stand to reason we would be inside the edge of the hurricane. They indicated that Omar was stationary but was expected to begin moving ENE about 3 kts an hour. NOT FAST ENOUGH!!

Lots of people in Spaanse (Spanish) Waters had already begun to move their boats around. Some were heading to Seru Boca Marina but they had limited space. Other boats were lifting their anchors from where they were to move to other spots where they had more room. The area around us originally had 5 boats. In very short order that had doubled because where we are is more protected but had more space.

Here on Mystic Journey sat 2 newbie sailors who had never experienced anything like this before. Thank goodness Denny was here to provide the voice of experience. He told us what he was doing and checked that we had done all we could. So were we worried?? At that point I would have to say we were concerned but not panicky. We knew what we could and would do if we started to drift or if someone started to drift towards us. As I think we mentioned, because Spanish Waters is really like a huge lagoon, we didn't have to worry about crashing waves, although at the peak of the winds, the wind chop was bouncing a lot of boats around rather easily.

Speaking of big waves, we also heard something else in the course of the evening that gave us food for thought. Just to back up for a moment, remember when we sailed from Grenada, our original intention was to stop in Bonaire and I would stay there on a mooring while Cheryl went back to visit. You may also remember we couldn't because due to the Regatta there was no room at the Inn. They say the good Lord protects fools, drunks and small children and here was one of the occasions where it rang true. The wind in the ABC's is 99% of the time an east wind. Once or twice a year they have what they call a reversal when the wind comes from the west and it is a big problem in Bonaire because the moorings (the only place you can stay other than 3 marinas, 2 of which are exposed to the open seas) face the west so when there is a reversal, it is usually a fairly strong wind - 20-30 kts and since the moorings are quite close to land, there are problems with the seas breaking under the boats. So, add to that the fact that the Tropical Storm that was hitting us was hitting Bonaire - from the west - and you can see the difficulty. To make a long story short (too late, I know), we were notified that the seas had destroyed a marina and beach side bar that were exposed to the west swells. Luckily there was some warning and apparently all the boats that were on the moorings were able to get behind the breakwater at the 3rd marina. But we could have been one of the boats scrambling to get to shelter.

So, back to Curacao and Omar the Hurricane.

We were able to get the NHC website, which is updated every 3 hours and provides all the pertinent information you may need regarding tropical storms and hurricanes. You can also get satellite photos there. As you can imagine, a lot of the boats were checking that site and updating, via VHF radio, the folks who didn't have internet. We check the site on a regular basis as one of our sources for weather and we have found it's predictive powers quite accurate. Imagine then how we reacted when we checked it the first time after Omar was declared a hurricane and found that for the last three hours, Omar had remained stationary. Of course we were already a bit anxious about our knowledge base regarding this particular weather because as far as we knew, hurricanes start as depressions/lows or waves, usually originating on the west coast of Africa and building as they cross the Atlantic. Their direction is normally ENE and that direction is why the north coast of South America (southern Caribbean) is hurricane free. By the time they get to the Caribbean they have moved north far enough to miss the southern portions. Omar actually began as a tropical storm towards the west and began to move east.

Of course when we saw Omar had been stationary, all kinds of thoughts raced through our minds, for me primarily "If they were wrong about it moving, maybe they will be wrong about the direction it will take when it does start to go"

Enough of the maybes and what ifs and so on and so forth. Bottom line is we spent a very restless night taking turns standing watch, checking the weather report every 3 hours and hoping for the dawn to break wind and rain free. It didn't!! But as the morning progressed, the wind did die down somewhat and we were actually able to glimpse patches of sky periodically. We were hit by one really drastic, down and dirty squall that dumped water so thick that we could no longer see the rest of the bay but other than that the weather steadily improved. I also had to empty the dinghy 4 times in the past 36 hours.

Casualties of the storm

First of all, I had thought about tying down the blades on the wind generator because I questioned myself whether it was good for it to be running steadily at the speeds the winds werre maintaining. After checking some other boats and seeing that everyone I could see had left them running, I decided to leave it go. Two further incentives to let well enough alone was first, I had no idea how I was going to stop the blades in order to tie them down. In normal winds I would turn the generator so it was away from the wind and the blades would slow down enough but with these winds swirling the way they were there was no way I could safely do that. The second reason is that it was keeping the batteries nicely charged so we didn't have to run the boat.

We lasted until this morning about 7:30. I had just come downstairs after waking Cheryl to take over watch when I heard and felt a loud vibration. I knew at once what it was so I ran up and threw a rope into the blades to stop them. The vibration was horrendous and I was afraid the whole thing would shake apart. End result - 2 1/2 blades gone plus the hub that holds the blades onto the shaft. Silver lining to that cloud - when Iwent up later to take the generator down I discovered that the constant stress had loosened the weld joint holding the generator support to the main frame support. If it had not broken the blades, the whole wind generator would most certainly gone into the sea, never to be seen again. Fools, drunks and small children!!

Second and last casualty - last night I heard a bang from the back deck and looked back to see that the railing on which the Propane BBQ is mounted had worked itself loose from the stanchion. Again, silver lining - if this had happened while we were sailing, the BBQ might even now be 20 fathoms down.

One down side that is not really about last night but indirectly related. Omar is heading for the Virgin Islands and the Windward Islands. We have friends there and after being just barely touched by the edge of just the storm part of the weather, we have been giving a lot of thought to our friends in BVI and praying they are going to be alright. We got a message to Clive who assured us that he flew home from the Annapolis boat show early and spent the day preparing his family and others for the storm. He is confident that they will be alright for which we give thanks.

This has been an experience to remember. We have had some contact with the powers of the elements as we have sailed down to reach Curacao, but this allows us a whole new glimpse at the awesomeness (my word) and scariness that is out there waiting.

The anchorage after a squall on Wednesday