Ironies

Ironies

The view of the public graveyard where Seaburban would have grounded last night had I not been able to stabilize our ranging and dragging.

I put in a call to Port Stanley Harbour Control at 6 morning to try and tell them that I was unable to maintain station and that if there was any deterioration In the weather or in my situation, I would likely ground between the boat launch and the cemetery.

The irony of a graveyard grounding was too much to bear. I had been reserving the rest of the rode for emergency. I figured this qualified.

I faked the remaining rode on the foredeck and thought what possible good could 54′ do? As we heeled sharply in the violent gusts, I fed the remaining line through the mooring cleats. Back in,the cockpit, I took bearings and ranges on street lights on both extremes of our swings about our rode. At the navstation, I plotted a GPS position and the ranges. I gave it all 30 minutes to resolve into something thatI could use to make a difficult decision and went outside to mentally note our swinging and the corresponding ranges.

There are coincidences and then there are coincidences. January 15 2016 my mom passed away in the loving company of our entire family. Yesterday, January 15 there were two great storms on this planet. The Falkland Islands, where I am, and Vancouver Island, where my sister Leah and father Jan live.

I figured my mom was shaking her fist at all of us. Leah decided.to name these massive storms in both places Hurricane Sophia in honour of mom.

This transpired while I was telling Leah what my situation was and would be if things went sideways. Shortly after, I checked my ranges and position. I was glad to the spot and remain so this morning despite the 50+ knot gusts.

Follow my tracks in real-time:
https://bit.ly/svseaburban