We had anticipated a gentle start to the day, intending to sail for two hours to Tomahawk Point before the predicted westerly change came in mid morning. After a somewhat rolly night, we actually found ourselves called to arms at 4:55am when one of the crew noticed the wind had gone around to the west and was already at 17 knots and rising quickly.
The wind change put us considerably closer to shore in a relatively shallow anchorage so immediate action was taken. Being well before sunrise and heavily overcast it was quite dark. The route for the days run had been planned the night before and loaded into the GPS but never the less, motoring out of Foster Inlet, in what were by now well over 30 knot winds with gusts to over 40 knots, took quite a while with the SOG only 3.1 knots at 3,000 rpm on the Yanmar.. The seas were short and sharp and if concentration lapsed for just a few seconds the nose of the boat would get blown well off course straight away and take quite a while to come back around.
The original choice of a three bladed propeller for Tegwen was certainly vindicated today. By half way across to Tomahawk Point the wind had eased a little to 25 knots and we were a more comfortable distance off the shore.
We anchored in behind Tomahawk Island before 9:00am and were very sheltered from the westerly wind. We moved along the beach a bit more later in the day the after had wind shifted to through SE to E and spent the night there. It was not a restful night - a pan pan call disturbed us all around 2:00 in the morning followed by a mayday call at 02:25. The vessel in distress managed to stabilise their situation and proceed but not before ongoing updates every 15 minutes until 04:00 had well and truly woken us all up. Tegwen was also quite rolly in the overnight conditions.
