Preparing for the Next One

I’m sitting at the computer on the boat after doing a morning yoga class and then spending the afternoon preparing for another “weather event” . We’ve had two in the past three weeks here in Bahia de Banderas and most especially in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The first on the 18th of January was a water spout that appeared in the middle of the bay. A friend with great radar said it was ½ mile wide at the base and was heading towards La Cruz where there were about 30 boats anchored. We pulled the motor off our dinghy, raised the dinghy on top of Eagle’s deck and lashed her down, started the engine, brought up the rocker stoppers, and headed for the marina. The forecast had been for worst weather in the afternoon. It didn’t come. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

February 2nd we are again anchored out at La Cruz after a nice visit with Kendall and a stay in Paradise Marina in Nuevo Vallarta. It has been raining steadily since the night before. We had spent most of the day at the Riviera Nayarit VIP Lounge (sounds more extravagant than it is). We can get free wifi there. Coming back to the boat the swells were rather large and I decided against Salsa lesson’s at Philo’s bar. Rough life here. Phileta and I were being studious, preparing for our General Exam so we can send emails on our SSB and become real “Hamsters”. Around 10:30 pm the boat begins to rock a bit more than usual. Our newly purchased (from a swap meet) solar panels are up on the deck and we decide to disrobe and go out in the downpour and bring them in. Good thing. No sooner do we get them in than the sound of the wind changes and Phileta says “We’re going to be hit with a squall”. Well, it was one hell of a squall. Winds jumped from 10 to 75 knots. Some people got in the 80’s. That’s over 100 mph winds. The boat is rocking violently from side to side, things crashing all around us. Our bimini (shade cover over the cockpit) is flapping and the frame starts to come apart. I could go on, but you get the picture. Then we hear a crunch and a white boat smashes into our bow. I run below and pull open the locker at the bow to make sure there is no water coming in. None there, but a horrible banging on the hull. The secondary anchor has been torn loose and there is no way to go forward and tie it down. All we can do is just sit on the setee and hold each other and wait for the wind to die down. When it finally does after 20-30 minutes, we put on our harnesses and clamp on to the jack lines to crawl forward in the wind, rain, and swells to tend to the anchor. Our little dinghy is still attached to the boat, but it is upside down with the motor on, one corner of the bimini is also still attached. We collapse into bed around 2 am.

At dawn I get up to look outside and see the damages. I only see two other boats around us. Wow, I think everyone’s gone into the marina. John and Liz on Outta Here are out in their dinghy picking up the pieces floating around. They point out their boat about ¼ mile away. We had been anchored next to them.

We look at what is left of our bow roller for the primary anchor that held us (until we were hit), Phileta secures what is left of it, we start the engine, and begin to haul up the anchor. Hallelujah it comes up with out a problem only it’s a bit bent from the impact. We motor into the marina along with all the other boats that were hit. It was like bumper boats in the anchorage that night. We were lucky, only one boat got us. We were all shaken and eager to tell out stories.

So for the past week we’ve been working on getting repairs, contacting and dealing with insurance without a phone (thank goodness for Skype), and having spotty wifi, electricity, and water. Now that everything seems to be in order. There is a warning for another incident tonight or tomorrow morning. We are tied in as secure as possible. We watched one squall go east of us a few days ago. Hopefully the same will happen with this. I’ll let you know.

The internet is back up this evening and I am able to post this before the "event" hits tomorrow. We are all so prepared, it seems things will just pass by.

Love to you all,
D & P