SSE

Posted By: Tom H.
Date: 5/11/08 10:52a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Sea Anchor, Drift? (bwayno)

We hung on the Sea anchor for six hours and drifted about one mile per hour SSE. Watching the sea during the episode was awsome....but to make it an effective movie, one would need to add some great clasical music with plenty of bass and percussion. The boat was rock solid and road very well. We rigged the Sea anchor's top to a large fender with about 100 feet of line. The other end of the set up was attached to a swivel, atached to our anchor, where its rode attaches to the anchor's twenty feet of chain. The entire set up put a large "belly" in the sea anchor's rode which acted like a shock absorber when each breaking wave hit the boat. The result was to take up the initial shock and then pull the boat through the boiling water and foam. My catamaran has "wave piercing" bows which also have lots of reserve boyancy aft of the bow's prow section. That put water boarding the bow's decks but disipated the boarding water quickly....well before it came our way, where we sat in the aft section of the boat's main deck, well behind the mast. The upside down dingy and its inflatable collar, secured to the forward trampoline, also helped with reserve boyancy and dispating the boarding water. Later, we retreived the Sea anchor and hoisted the main and a small jib and the boat sailed like a beach cat...fast and flat, just flying through the wind and waves... Waaaa hoooo.... What an awsome sail.... Mother's Day cut our sailing a bit short, fearing reprisal for not including the wives in this trip and possibly not gettng home in time for the traditional "husband's cook every thing that day" at home. We are safe and sound, back in the SLC area of Utah. The only hitch on the way back was we hit Mariposa an hour after it closed. Then the US border would not allow us or any truck, RV or trailer traffic back into the US through the main Nogales crossing. They made us wait until the Mariposa crossing opened the next morning at 6 AM, seven hours after we hit Nogales. Rather than kill time in the "real" slummy section of the city, we drove back out towards Santa Anna and slept on hte main highway in a truck stop next to a Pemex gas station. Oh ya, later in the trip home a spun trailer axle bearing just outside Mesqulite, Nevada allowed us to take full adantage of my Auto club towing insurance...getting us to St. George, Utah, where I left the boat and trailer at my brother's house. That should give his Home Owner's Association somehting to talk about for the next week or so. We did take off the malfunctioning axle and take it with us. I'll get it fixed he3re in SLC wher there are many more options and services. I'll then return to St. George, Utah to install it and talk my brother out of dinner and a bed for the night....right after I replace the tow vehcle, who's tranny died just a few miles from home. We've had that vehicle forever and put lots of miles on it. I've been meaning to replace that car for some time....now I have an excuse. In some ways this trip was like an old western where the storm of the century hit, we were pinned down by circunstances, the wagon broke down and then even the horse died. However, the real difference is we were well prepared for the storm and it was exillerating....we were pinned down by not being allowed back into the US exactly when we wanted, the wagon did break down, but AAA was easily available....the horse dies...but before doing so it had stereo, movies if we wanted, not to mention AC ....and we've now been gotten about every mile possible out of that horse and we have been planning and preparing to replace it anyway. (After we buy any new vehicle with saved cash, we always begin making payments to ourselves in anticipation of the that vehcile's future replacement...) What a geaat trip...! I'll clean up the ship's log and add a bit then post it for fun. Is life just the finest or what..?...nad the adventure continues..... Tom