July 22—Lake Sylvia, Ft. Lauderdale

Captain said his mistake was stopping at Burger King for lunch, but as he explained his delay in returning, I realized there was much more to it.  First, when he left, he knew there was some rain on the radar and not far away. Second, he went down every isle of mega West Marine, the largest store in the world, uncaring of what was happening outside.  And lastly, he didn’t check the radar even once after he left Fritz and me on the boat.  What was he thinking?

The first time I called he was walking in the pouring rain and couldn’t answer or he might ruin his phone.  He thought if I called again he would know I was in trouble.  I waited, and called again three minutes later, still no answer.  He found shelter in the Embassy Suites lobby and called me back.  I didn’t answer, so he dialed again, this time he heard my desperation, “I can’t talk!  The anchor is dragging and I have to start the engine before we hit the other boats!”  

Before I share another storm tale of terror to tranquility let me back up to the early morning.  The heat in the aft berth drove me out onto the deck to sleep and about 2:00am was awake when I noticed a boat without any lights drifting about 50 yards away.  Concerned, thinking their anchor was not holding, I got out a spotlight and binoculars.  It was scary as they drifted back, back, back, almost into the sea wall of this affluent neighborhood, but then all of a sudden the boat moved forward.  This happened time after time, obviously on purpose, so my fearfulness was replaced with my curiosity.  Using the binoculars I could see it was an older man with a younger boy, probably dad and son, probably fishing, so no need for alarm.  Eventually they left, and I returned to my storm-free night’s rest. 

Morning dawned with overcast skies, no sunrise and the radar showing some patchy green and blue headed north for Ft. Lauderdale.  Thinking it was just rain showers Dennis left about 10:00, dinghyed a couple miles down the canals to where he could tie up and walk another mile and a half to West Marine.  He was looking for a fan to fix the ongoing problem of the overheating generator. 

After he left, I took a large blue tarp and secured it with bungees over the cabin so once the rain started we could keep the hatches open.  Working down below about 11:45, I heard the rain pattering on the cabin top.  Soon after I looked at the radar and it now showed some yellow and red tracking towards Lake Sylvia.  I was still not concerned until I heard the wind starting to blow and Aurora began to pitch about, immediately wishing Dennis was back on board. As the winds began to increase, I remembered back to yesterday when we anchored, that we hadn’t really backed down on the chain as well as we usually do, and that we had only put out 80 ft of chain.  Only then did I begin to think of the possibility, of the anchor not holding.   Wind speeds increased and blowing rain kept me from seeing if the anchor chain was taut.  The tarp began to whip about, and after about 10 minutes of wind abuse came loose on one side.  I went to the top of the cabin steps and poked my head out several times, but the blowing rain, and tarp whipping around hindered my sight of our position.   I began to look out the side hatches and the position of the boat in relation to things along the shore.  Off to port was a 60ft blue and white yacht, off starboard was the only other sailboat in the anchorage. We were swinging side to side, still difficult to tell, but I knew we were probably slipping.  It was probably around 12:15 when this dawned on me, and I began to consider the scenarios.  First I knew if the anchor was dragging we might not go too far and also knew the lake is about 400 long by 300 yards wide giving room for some movement.  On the port at 50 ft was the blue yacht tied to a seawall, anchored off our stern about 100 yards back were two 60 foot motor yachts rafted together.  Then there were two other 25 ft power boats motoring about.

Once I knew we were indeed moving, I tried to keep a close watch on the positions of all the other boats, and I also knew we had some room to drift before we were in big trouble.  With the winds now reaching about 20 mph and horizontal rains Aurora began to slip backwards quickly.  I started to pray for the winds to decrease so we wouldn’t drift any further, and also began thinking of what I could do.  Dennis and I had talked in length about the anchor rode getting wrapped around the prop so I was very reluctant to start the engine and go forward towards the chain, but knew ultimately that is what I might have to do.  I kept going outside and assessing and realized we were getting closer and closer to the two yachts behind, and further from the blue yacht and sailboat where we had been. 

By this time I am soaked to the skin and the two boats motoring around had been by at least 3 times.  I know they realized Aurora was dragging, but not sure if they knew I was by myself trying to figure out what to do.  They were doing their best to stay out of harm’s way.  I knew by now the winds were not going to stop in time to keep us from hitting the two boats now off the stern by about 40 ft.  They realized it too and had sent someone out on the bow to fend us off.  It was time to stop praying, and use my knowledge to do something about the situation. I had already called Dennis twice.  I grabbed my raincoat, the engine key, turned on the instruments and headed for the cockpit when the phone rang, and I yelled to him my intentions.  He confirmed to start the engine. 

The rain was pelting me, and it was difficult to get the key seated.  Finally it turned and the engine purred.  Now only about 30 ft from the two boats, I put it in forward increasing to 2200 rpms until I could go forward 50 feet, fighting the wheel to keep going forward, not sideways, then put it in neutral for a few seconds.  As soon as I decreased speed or put it in neutral the boat would immediately slide backwards again, and if I didn’t keep the bow pointing into the wind even with speed I would slip sideways.  I went forward, then slid backward or sideways about 5 times.  Each time brought more relief as I realized if the chain was going to fowl the prop it would have already done so.  At one point I waved off one of the power boats as he came close and was afraid I might be blown into him.  He turned and motored off in a different direction.  There were four lightening strikes during this time, one of which flashed red.  Finally the winds subsided to about 10 mph, and was surprised when I heard Dennis around 1:00 yelling behind me, “Stop the boat!”   So relieved to have the captain back and in charge, I gladly stopped.   My forty minutes of terror were finally at an end.  Even though a gentle rain replaced the storm, I wasn’t tranquil for a long time.    

July 23—Los Olas Marina, Ft. Lauderdale

Storms were forecast again for today, so Dennis found us a marina about a half mile from Lake Sylvia for 85 cents a foot.  What a deal!  He kicked himself for not finding it sooner, especially with my ordeal yesterday.  The “priceless part” it is only two blocks from the beach!  I made three trips there, the last time for yogurt and do finally feel truly tranquil.  Tomorrow we’re offshore, hopefully storm-free to Rodriguez Key, then Marathon on Wednesday.  It’s hard knowing there at least 5 or 6 more days on the boat when we’re only 2 ½ hours from home, but good to know we’ll be there soon!  Please pray for fair winds for our last few days.