Dundas Harbour Force 9

Did I really say 'As long as our anchor holds, we'll be safe and there's no better feeling than enjoying a gale in a safe anchorage.' in my last post? We arrived at Dundas Harbour Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday morning at 6 a.m. we were in the middle of a full-blown Force 9, sustained winds of 41-47 knots, with many lengthy gusts over 50 knots and one at 60. We've only been on this cruise for less than three months and we've had two Force 9s, what are the bad luck odds on that?

The bay is large and it was whipped up into a whirling maelstrom of spray and sea. There was no 'enjoying' this gale. It was very miserable and actually quite frightening. If the anchor had dragged we'd have been on the rocks in less than five minutes, it really was a life or death situation. There was a short lull down to around 30 knots in the afternoon and although our anchor seemed to be stuck down well, we had to move due to proximity to another boat and the shore. We went down to the other end of the bay, tried a couple of times to set the anchor without success and came back to where we knew there was good holding. We tried two more times, but, it wasn't right again, so, we went in closer to the other boats and it set right away. Later, the closest boat dragged a bit and we became too close, but, neither of us was ever going to pull up our anchor in the conditions, so, we had to try and dance around each other all night, just added to the stress level. We took fifteen minute turns on the tiller trying to steer away.

Twenty-six hours passed staring at the GPS trying to determine whether we were dragging. It was very intense and nerve-wracking. We had a few issues. At one point, there was a loud bang. Our anchor snubber line (heavy nylon) had pulled apart, it didn't chafe, it broke. G. put on another, but, it too didn't last. We had carefully wrapped our roller furling to make sure it wouldn't unravel. Yet, around 4:30 a.m., the rig started to shake and the unmistakable sound of a flogging sail started up. The roller furling hadn't unravelled, but, there was a large bag of sail coming out the top of the number 2 genoa. The sacrificial UV strip on the sail had started to shred and was pulling the sail out along with it. Nothing for it but to let it out and refurl the whole thing. This is not an easy task in 50 knot gusts. We got set up and proceeded to unfurl the sail to leeward. Just as it started to come out, there was a huge gust and the bow went off to port. Consequently, the sail came out on the windward side and backed, the boat went over on her ear and we buried the rail. The water came over the rail and started filling the cockpit, drenching us both. Only a quick release of the windward sheet took the pressure off and allowed the boat to come back upright. We were both rather shell-shocked after this experience, but, it wasn't over yet. We went forward on hands and knees to try and tie the sail up. G. tried to stand up and could barely hold on.

This morning, all is calm and beautiful again, with a dusting of new snow on the mountaintops. We couldn't even recognize it from the horrific scenes of the night before. We'd planned to stay and enjoy Dundas Harbour for a few days, but, now have such bad memories of this place, we are enroute today for Arctic Bay. It took 3 hours to get the anchor up, inch by inch, using the windlass and two halyards. Our nylon bow roller has also disintegrated.

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Dundas Harbour 8/8/2014 12:00 74°31.9'N 082°25.0'W