2013 Tropical Storm Andrea
I needed the rest after the two days of steaming through the canal and
south down the Delaware Bay and all the sand sholes. I came through the
narrow entrance into this so called harbour but it is more like an
enclosed river mouth with a bay stretching SE to the town. I
pulled up the anchor and found a marina who had no space but at least
water and diesel so I filled all the tanks to full and left to reanchor
having found out along the shoreline both sea and land was quite
shallow water. I dropped anchor with quite some room aft of me
and let out 75 m of my 10mm chain. I checked that the rest would
flow easliy and also checked that the join to the nylon rode was secure
and free flowing.
There was a hive of actity at the Coast Guard Training Centre as the
recruits stowed everything movable and made sure that the few vessel in
their dock had double the lines. With all the canvas well secured
along with everything on deck I
prepared a good meal and then settled into bed with the alarm set for
midnight when the Tropical Storm would arrive.
Here is the extract from Wikipedia The first tropical cyclone and named
storm of the annual hurricane season, Andrea originated from an area of
low pressure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on June 5. Despite strong
wind shear and an abundance of dry air, the storm strengthened while
initially heading north-northeastward. Later on June 5, it re-curved
northeastward and approached the Big Bend region of Florida. Andrea
intensified and peaked as a strong tropical storm with winds at 65 mph
56 knots on June 6. A few hours later, the storm weakened slightly and
made landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida later that day. It began
losing tropical characteristics while tracking across Florida and
Georgia. Andrea transitioned into an extratropical cyclone moved along
the East Coast of the United States.
Yes I was right in its path and well prepared. I got a few hours
sleep but just before midnight the wind started from the SE. I
had quite some room astern so I undid the snubber and let out all the
chain I had in the locker which was 100 m. The nylon took the
strain round the capstan. Well the wind rose more and more.
Thankfully ther was a short fetch so the waves were quite small.
Then came the rain and the wind so I again let out another 20 m of
nylon and started the engine. I put it in gear and just let it
idle.
At the hight of the wind I had the engine in full ahead with the anchor
straining to keep Malua in position. I was watching the anchor
alarm from the cockpit as we weaved back and forth with the wind in the
high 40 knots. The rain and noise was disconserting not that I
had to talk to anyone else. It appeared that all the other vessel
except one were holding at their stations. That fellow started to
drag towards the sea shore beach but thankfully the anchor must have
caught something because he stopped just before going onto the beach.
At about 4:00 am the winds veered to be comming from the opposite
direction so it was time to up anchor and reanchor with more roon off
my stern. This was a challenge in itself because I had to guage
how the anchor was comming in from the cockpit while pressing the up
anchor butten. I am sure I put strain on the windlass but
eventually I say the anchor appear over the bow and I steemed into the
wind to drop it a and let out the 75 m of chain again. The anchor
set the first time and I was again stationary with the Vesper Marine
anchor watch set.
From about 5:00 am to dawn with the rain continuing all this time I sat
either in the cockpit with the engine running or down below watching
the anchor alarm. The rain and wind eased as the light came up
and I could relax and have breakfast. I was not going anywhere
for a few days untill the open ocean calmed down so I went ashore and
walked around. The next stage was to enter the Hudson River and the Big Apple
Was that a magical moment on Malua.
Here are a few photos of the short haul
here...
Follow Malua.
