Well this was a bit of a surprise. I arrived in this anchorage on Monday thinking that the leeside of Lana'i would be relatively calm. There were stronger trade winds expected (around 20 knots) and as I wanted to move along from Lahaina I thought it would be a good idea to hang out on Lana'i. It seems like I may have picked one of the windiest places in the state to hang out - judging from the wind observations reports I hear on the VHF from around the state.
Monday had moderate wind. Tuesday the wind was pretty moderate as well, I was able to clean the topsides of the boat and work on a few chores - thinking that I could snorkel the following day for a few days. Wednesday it started to get windier and I didn't get the dinghy in the water. By Thursday the weather reports on VHF WX1 was warning about a "wind advisory for Lana'i - NE 20-35 knots, gusts to 45." The highest wind I saw on Thursday was 34 knots but the wind was 15 to 25 all day, gusting regularly higher. The forecast was for the wind to weaken by the weekend. Friday the wind was NE 15-25 gusts to 31 with the wind weakening after the weekend. Today the winds have been NE 15-30, gusts to 33 with the wind expected to weaken early in the week. I keep waiting for the winds to die down as expected, but the expected date keeps moving forward. It gets windy here in Hawaii!
I re-anchored on Tuesday to be further north, more in the middle of the bay I'm in and am very happy that I did so. There is a rule about reefing a sail: if you're thinking about reefing the sail, then its time to do so. It seems the same rule applies to re-anchoring. If you're not comfortable with where you're anchored then move, delaying doesn't improve the situation. I ended up moving when the winds were blowing me close to the rocky south shore (< 100' away, I get nervous early...) and it was an interesting experience raising my anchor with the winds gusting to 30 knots as I kept the boat positioned into the wind (at the helm) and raised the anchor (at the bow.) It took a little while but ended well. The anchor is holding well and hasn't moved at all in the time I've been here. I'm loving my anchor alarm (VesperMarine WatchMate) and the graphics it has, it raises my comfort level being able to glance at it.
I have plenty of food, water, power and patience. I may leave here on Monday. I don't really want to get beat up getting to my next anchorage (which is across a channel with accelerated winds and then upwind for about 7nm,) so I'll delay until I'm comfortable. I should be on O'ahu later this week.
If any of you were wondering: Where's Craig? Why hasn't he moved in the past week? I'll be moving along when I think the time is right :-)
See ya!
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment