Blog 016 – Weather Windows and Sick At Sea

Stormy sunset at sea

We ended our last blog with the sun going down and the storms rolling in. It’s now 8pm and the seas are really starting to get confused. We are being rolled side-to-side and making very little forward progress. The engine revs when the propeller comes out of the water with the motion of the seas, and then it’s muffled again as we settle back into the waves. Earlier we had all the sails up and the sailing was great fun. Sixteen to twenty knots of wind and we were sailing nice. But now we are surrounded by thunderheads with lightning flashing. We roll-in the genoa sail and then I maneuver on deck and pull the second reef in the main sail. Having the mainsail up really reduces the motion of the seas but now we have squalls coming and decide to drop both sails. These storms can generate tremendous winds.
A week and a half ago at our mooring in Beaufort, SC one of these storms came upon us quickly. Liana was laying in the hammock asleep and I was down below planning our next voyage when the sky started to get dark. I went to wake up Liana just about the time she decided to look at the sky. We quickly began to take down the hammock when it hit us – 54 mph wind according to our instruments. It laid us 30 degrees on our side in the middle of the harbor. We had to yell at each other just to hear over the screaming wind while getting things off the deck. The water in the harbor looked like we were in the ocean with white caps and spray being blown off the tops. In less than an hour the intense wind was over but the torrential rain continued.

So that’s why we took the sails down. The previous owner of Silhouette said forget all the storm tactics of sailing thru these. Just drop the sails, steer into the wind and waves, and ride it out. The boat has a huge reliable diesel and it is better for the crew to power through a rough squall than to mess with handling sails, especially when sailing shorthanded. This is good advice from a good sailor who knows this boat better than anyone. So that’s what we do. It works.

Liana is getting tired and I do all the mid watches. She comes up and relieves me for a few hours around one or two in the morning and I take naps during the day. Tonight the rolling seas made it tough for her. She went to the aft cabin and laid in the middle of the bed but the motion was too much. She came back up after about an hour feeling seasick. This is unusual for either of us. We live on a boat. We get land-sick not sea-sick! In all my years in the Navy I can count on one hand the times I got seasick. Liana has been seasick only once since we have been going to sea together and that time was from a fuel leak in the bilge so it really wasn’t seasickness. But right now she looked pretty uncomfortable as she tried sitting in the cockpit with the wind in her face. She eventually wound up laying on the deck in the middle of the cockpit. She never threw-up but it was close enough. This was going to be a long night.

I managed to steer us away from the storms but the waves were relentless. I did not eat all night and by 3am I was needing some coffee. We use an electric water pot because it only takes a few minutes to make a full pot of hot water. I told Liana I was going down to make some coffee and she thought I was crazy but she was too sick to argue. So I put the pot on our gimbaled stove and locked it in with pot latches. Now I have hot water. Remember the crazy waves still going on?Well, we use a French Press for making coffee once the water has boiled. The press has two parts – a pot with hot water and ground coffee and a plunger. I added in the coffee and the boiling water but I left the plunger in the sink which was behind me. So I turned around to grab it the same moment a big wave crashed into the portside of the boat. And now fresh, hot coffee was sloshing across the countertop and down my backside. I hate to hear I told you so but she was right-no words necessary.

I should have known better since 30 years ago I had to be air lifted from a submarine in the Pacific Ocean with 3rd degree burns all over my back from a few gallons of hot coffee spilled on me. We had an independent-duty corpsman on the boat at that time and he saved my life. He treated me for days until we could get close enough for an air lift. Then I spent weeks going back and forth to Trippler Army Medical Center’s burn center in Hawaii. There was another guy being treated for severe burns at the same time. He had a steam valve rupture on his groin area. He wanted to trade burns with me-no thanks. Mine eventually healed.

So from now on it’s instant coffee in the microwave in rough seas. Now the sun is coming up and we have heavy shipping traffic all around us. Charleston, SC is a class A entrance for the Navy and for bulk container ships. We passed the sea buoy around 6am and the storms were off into the distance but the contrary seas and 20 knots of wind were slowing our progress. We were only making two knots. Around 7am we decided to turn back towards Charleston and abandon our plans for making Cape Fear on this passage. We are now going with the wind and the seas and making 7 knots towards where we just came from. So nice to have a little break! But as soon as we turned into the channel for Charleston we have a stretch of 12 miles with wind and seas on the broadside of the boat. The rolling started again and never stopped until the break water. Liana was now feeling sick again, not better.

I want to pause for one second here for a Mommy break. I know my mom (bless her heart) reads these blogs so I need to explain something. We are not and never were scared nor were we in any more danger than crossing any street in Denver. Neither of us were scared, nor did we have thoughts of, “Oh no, what did we get ourselves into.” We respect the ocean’s power and our boat is safe and strong and reliable. We were just tired and uncomfortable.

By late morning we were safely anchored in Charleston harbor. Tired, hungry, one of us getting over being motion sick but it’s all good. A look at the weather showed us by morning everything would be better. We watched the sun go down and got some much needed rest. Thank you Lord for a safe passage.

Charleston, SC Harbor