August, 20th, 2010 Friday, small craft warning

Well.. again the wind came up. At one time during the night the Captain turned the VHF on... It was a crazy sight when I got up. During the night we had gale force winds come up. It was crazy, And i slept through the whole thing. Just before 11 the Captain woke up to flashlights flashing in the windows, and people yelling. He jumped into his pants and went topside. Every boat in the bay (except us, and the boat next to us) drug their anchor. The two boats that were rafted together, about halfway to the beach from us, was now behind us. To start with we were the farthest out from the beach. The guy that was closest to us had a boat come down on his anchor. The worst part is there wasn't anyone on board, so he had to get untangled, and get the boat off of him by himself. He tied the other boat off his stern and threw it's anchor off of the starboard side and put his dinghy in between them. The boat that was in front of us were almost on our anchor, but the had their motor running and were working on staying off our rode. That's what the yelling was about.The Captain turned on the VHF on to hear if anyone needed any help and caught warning from the Coast Guard, saying a small craft warning on the Straight of Juan De Fuca, gale force winds, which is on the other side of the island. It's a good thing the wind was blowing the way it was or all the boats would have been on the beach, or the rocks, or pinned up against the cliffs. Everyone made it through the 'bumper boat' action, with minor scrapes and no-one was hurt. The rest of the day was calm, the wind, the tides, the atmosphere,, calm. The small boat that was rafted with the other boat, left. The boat that didn't have anyone on board, came, and thanked the guy that saved his boat, and didn't just cut it loose, loaded some provisions and he left also.

We had a beautiful schooner that 'sailed' in, and anchored up closer to the beach. It was a family of 7? The ages of the kids ranged, at my guesstamation. from 16 to 5, and boy was it a great show. Everyone worked in total harmony. They all knew what their job was, and did it with very little guidance. the last night on the hook was too short. Watmough Bay, my new favorite place....   bunkmate