About an hour after the incident, I went down to my stateroom to find that about a gallon of water had come down through the exhaust fan in the ceiling of my bathroom soaking the mirror, sink, toilet and floor. The wall of water that hit Starr must have made a complete circuit of the vessel's deck and ended up against the deckhouse bulkhead on the starboard side of the ship. My exhaust vent discharges though that bulkhead about four feet above deck level. Wow.
I've attached a picture of the port side bulwark gate stainless steel latch that bent ninety degrees before its attachment bolt sheared when the wave hit. Next to it in the photo is an unbent spare latch for comparison (of course Don had a spare aboard). It takes a force of at least a thousand pounds to shear a 5/16" stainless bolt like that. I'd provide a picture of the picnic table too, but what was once a nice teak table is just a pile of lumber. There's not much left to see.
When I got up to go on watch this morning the seas were down to a pleasant size and Starr was relishing in the conditions as she bounded over them toward adventure. Conditions should continue to improve all the way in. It is looking like landfall late tomorrow. We may not make it in to Dutch Harbor, which is around on the back side of Unalaska Island, before dark. In that case, Clay has penciled in some hidey hole anchorages on the south side of Unalaska that would provide a safe stopping place for the night.
Once we get into Dutch Harbor, we'll fill fuel and then tie up for a day or so. We need to sit out the next low that will roll though late Saturday, and that will give us time to do some exploring.
No comments:
Post a Comment