Squalls Continue

We greeted the day with little sleep.  Squalls continue to drift in from the south and west.  The image above is of a passing squall and accompanying water spout.  Fortunately the storm pictured above passed to our south. 

A thorough inspection confirmed that C’est la Vie’s only damage was the wind generator which by all visual inspections appeared to by providing power, but the battery monitor told a different story.   We were unable to use the onboard switch to stop the whirring blades and the unit was not providing any power to our battery banks.  Anne and I removed the blades and tied out the tail of the unit.  Our faithful generator not rests naked and silent. 

One point of pride is that both the aft awning (pictured above) and the foredeck awning that we created prior to our departure survived the squall while set up.  Our experience proves their strength, but given the option I will remove this canvas in future storms.  We have never before pulled our anchor and I have to believe that the resistance of these additional awnings was part of the reason we drug our anchor.

Between squalls I dove our anchor and was pleased to find only the shank visible above the sand and grass.  Its current set and the additional rode buoy my confidence that we will not again lose our grasp on the sea bed.   My dive confirmed that we did drag anchor last night.  We plowed an impressive 60 foot long by 1 foot deep furrow across the sand before catching in the grasses.

With C’est la Vie inspected and secure, I rowed Origami over to EZ to offer my assistance.  Lance, the lone crew of EZ, and Wes had just completed clearing the fouled prop and visual inspection of the hull below the waterline.  EZ suffered a 4”X6” puncture in her starboard hull.  She also sheared the linkage between the wheel and the rudder.  I was impressed by Lance’s calm demander as I peered into the flooded starboard hull.  If this were not a multihull vessel she would likely be resting on the bottom along the coaling docks.  EZ’s  two intact hulls were providing buoyancy for the wounded third hull.  Using an emergency, makeshift tiller Lance, Wes, and I moved EZ off the NPS mooring on onto her own anchor.   Lance, a long time live aboard cruiser feels confident that he can ship the damaged rudder linkage back to Key West for repairs via the daily tourist ferries.

Perhaps an afternoon nap?  First an invitation for afternoon coffee aboard MV Last One?  Bob and Mara are generous hosts and provide many insights and stories about the Dry Tortugas.   They convince us that we must visit Logger Head Key before we depart the Tortugas.