Wind and rain

[ris]

We knew we were in for 4 days of rain so we decided today to head for a marina. To get to the marina we would have to cross a inlet on the north end of Cumberland Island. The wind is out of the north east, we are coming from the south west. When we were about 2 miles from the inlet we left the protection of a large marsh and headed straight toward the inlet. The waves went from 1.5 feet to 3 and 4 feet very fast. We had the whole enclosure up so the spray busting over the boat did not wet us. The waves were real close together and coming straight on. Many folks here have said these Macs can take more weather than we people can and they are right. I was afraid to turn around so we headed straight into the waves until we could run down wind into a river that we had decided on as our bailout if things got bad near the inlet. We never even got close to the inlet, probably about 2 miles away. I asked the wife to get a camera and she looked at me as she held on the the steering pedestal, and said no way. She even had her life jacket on. At 5.5 mph that Mac was going up and crashing down, spray from the bow dropping back down, blowing back over the boat. The wind picked up to about 20 mph in just those few minutes when we left the protection of the marsh.(it could have been higher). We are now anchored back in the 100 yard wide river where we anchored last night. We have a lot of trees to our NE which is where the wind is coming from. We will be here until Sunday when things are supposed to calm down. There is a dock to our south about 200 yards where we can land the dinghy and get off the boat. But it is going to be a windy couple of days. Some of the gusts are supposed to reach 40 mph. I guess this is why some call this an adventure.

[Herschel]

Congrats on the good seamanship and getting you and the boat through it all. I concur with the decision to ride it out in a sheltered area. I think the weather has to be what drives the schedule. Any place along the ICW that is exposed to the larger bodies of water can have a very different personality. True for rivers with large lakes, too.

[Starscream]

I guess this is why some call this an adventure.

"The difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude".

Helps when you are experiencing the adventure with a positive person. Adventure/Ordeals become good memories if you live through them.

[yukonbob]

We had the whole enclosure up so the spray busting over the boat did not wet us. The waves were real close together and coming straight on. Many folks here have said these Macs can take more weather than we people can and they are right.

The enclosure makes those conditions more bearable and less intense not being exposed, but there's also something about the waves and spray coming over the deck (assuming good foul weather gear) hair soaked and tasting the salt water that really just awesome driving the bow into wave after wave (dam I want to go sailing )

[Seapup]

Welcome to April. Seems to always be one northeaster after another in the mid atlantic, then May is beautiful though . They are predictable at least. Windfinder shows it turning east late afternoon and dropping a bit to 15-25 around 5pm at Cumberland island, before picking back up NE strong again. You may have a little window to jump North to Jekyll then.

[FlyboyTR]

Excellent choices were made. Thanks for sharing the adventure.

[WASP18]

Life jackets are too often thought of as ominous, as if they were parachutes. Putting them on as if a boat was in real jeopardy or like an airplane ready to go down.

Life jackets should be worn most of the time especially in weather. In sailing, a person could be whacked unconscious by a boom and knocked overboard. The life jacket would hold them up, at least giving them a fighting chance.

I suggest you get into the habit of wearing one more often.