Sorry, that was a really lousy movie, but the title reminds me of the weather system that motivated us to move anchorages a couple days ago. This time of year the surface prognosis charts for this area look a bit busy, with troughs and ridges and cyclonic activity popping up here and there, the effects of which put the occasional damper on our otherwise ridiculously fun lifestyle. Rule number one in this business is to review the various weather forecasting products daily and as soon as something icky begins to rear its head find somewhere to hide and ride it out. Inattention to this information can result in a lot of sucking and blowing and then your house goes away. Sorry – that’s an old joke comparing the similarities of tornados to marriage and divorce, perhaps not appropriate for this forum, but hey, nobody said this was a family show.
Anyway, the Southeast corner of Tahanea is no place to ride out a blow that includes big winds with a Northerly component, so we weighed anchor on Monday morning and moved back up to the anchorage just South of the Northwest pass. From where we dropped the hook the terrain gives us swell protection from the East Southeast up to the Northwest. The forecast that motivated our pick of anchorages showed a big rotation in wind direction, some pretty robust wind velocity, but not a lot out of the West before it all dies off. Now that we’re tucked in here that’s changed a bit, but here we be.
Tuesday a couple of other boats joined us here, having made their own judgement calls about the upcoming blow. The rest of the boats went to a couple of different spots with the exception of one vessel who remained in the Southeast end. Things were nice and calm yesterday and well into the night, then the sporty winds arrived, clocking around the East Northeast where we have excellent protection. Next up – an insanely heavy rainstorm featuring lightning and thunder, then in the middle of all that a bloody waterspout, for Pete’s sake. Our pals on SV Long Temps spotted it first and sounded a warning horn, motivating us to shut the saloon door and prepare for anything. I’ve only seen a waterspout once before, at our hailing port in the harbor of Beaufort North Carolina. I was hanging out with cousin Johnny watching a tall ship regatta featuring sailors playing pirates when we spied this tornado-looking water thing.
Waterspouts can be extremely dangerous to small pleasure yachts, kind of like whales. Fun to see them in the distance as long as they don’t get too close. This one got within about 200 meters of us before disappearing into the very low visibility environment. In Arizona we had dust devils which are kind of the same thing, except it takes a lot more energy to lift a column of water into the air than it does to suck up some dirt and twigs. I was happy to watch the movie Twister on the big screen – no desire at all to be in the remake called “Waterspout”.
The one boat that remained in the Southeast anchorage got on the VHF this morning and cried “uncle”. They’re now underway to a more protected spot, being coached in there by another vessel. Perhaps they didn’t examine the weather as hard as the rest of us, or perhaps they figured their ground tackle was big enough to handle it, but after a few hours of the abuse they came to their senses. Problem is, now they’re having to move and re-anchor in very difficult conditions. Hopefully they’ll be OK, and you can bet next time they’ll reposition before it all goes down the toilet. Right now where we are it’s blowing hard out of the Northwest, up to 34 knots so far. Despite our confidence in our own anchoring skills and ground tackle, the engine start battery is in the “on” position and the keys are in the ignition.
Bommies are what we call coral heads, John. The guys on the boat that’s currently moving anchorages call them “boomies”. I like that name better, because it describes the sound you’d hear if your boat runs into one.
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