Connie and I had the weekend to ourselves and decided to spend it at our favorite anchorage... the North Bay of Kelley's Island. The problem was that we got a late start getting out of town on Friday night. No problem... we'll cruise to the anchorage at night. We've been there many times and know the area well. The weather forecast called for sunny, hot and not much wind all weekend.
Problem number two. We left the marina at 8:45pm and noticed that the wind was not calm, but rather blowing about 16 knots out of the northeast. The exact direction that made anchoring at Kelley's uncomfortable at best and downright dangerous at its worst. Here's the lesson that I evidently needed to learn again. When sailing, you can't have a fixed agenda. The weather dictates your agenda and if it doesn't agree with yours, then you have to be the one to change.
Well, we continued on to Kelley's Island and as we rounded the northeast corner of the island, the swells increased to 3 to 4 feet. It was now after 10pm and damn dark. We could see the anchor light of one other unfortunate soul and decided to press on. We set the hook as close to the eastern shore of the North Bay as we could get but we paid the price of our bad decision all night long as the boat bounced and rolled with the swells coming into the bay. We should have changed our plans and anchored in a place with less waves. After bouncing until 6am the next morning, the wind died down and we finally got to sleep. The rest of the weekend was devoid of wind so, no sailing, but was perfect for anchoring... so my first mate, Connie, was perfectly happy.
Problem number two. We left the marina at 8:45pm and noticed that the wind was not calm, but rather blowing about 16 knots out of the northeast. The exact direction that made anchoring at Kelley's uncomfortable at best and downright dangerous at its worst. Here's the lesson that I evidently needed to learn again. When sailing, you can't have a fixed agenda. The weather dictates your agenda and if it doesn't agree with yours, then you have to be the one to change.
Well, we continued on to Kelley's Island and as we rounded the northeast corner of the island, the swells increased to 3 to 4 feet. It was now after 10pm and damn dark. We could see the anchor light of one other unfortunate soul and decided to press on. We set the hook as close to the eastern shore of the North Bay as we could get but we paid the price of our bad decision all night long as the boat bounced and rolled with the swells coming into the bay. We should have changed our plans and anchored in a place with less waves. After bouncing until 6am the next morning, the wind died down and we finally got to sleep. The rest of the weekend was devoid of wind so, no sailing, but was perfect for anchoring... so my first mate, Connie, was perfectly happy.