ROLLING AT PERCY ISLAND

4 July 2023

After anchoring at Percy Island I was eager to get ashore.  But it was just too rough and the wind too strong to put the dinghy in the water.  I stayed on board and scanned the shoreline with binoculars. We rolled all afternoon and reached a crescendo coinciding with high water just before midnight.  Only then was some sleep possible. 

The next day, Monday, was overcast with rain sprinkles.  The sky looked ominous and the forecast equally nasty.  Late morning and I was able to hitch a ride with a couple from one of the big catamarans in their suitably large dinghy.  A nice big dinghy with a grunty engine, what luxury.  Once ashore we met up with the caretaker, Malcolm, a friendly and informative chap.  He was picking up fresh passion fruit from trees just behind the beach, he gave me some, so good.  Coconuts are everywhere for the taking.  Although I have not yet learnt how to husk them.  We visited the Percy Island Yacht Club but unfortunately our time ashore was limited as the weather was turning fast and low grumbling thunder was coming closer.  Heavy rain was not far away.

Back on board Truce I completed the long overdue job of hooking up the cockpit lights with a new electrical connection.  As usual it took just about every tool on the boat to complete the job. 

In the early evening the weather turned evil.  A six meter tide, strong tidal currents, a northerly swell and thirty knot plus blasts of wind made life miserable.  We rolled as did the other monohulls in the anchorage.  One boat in particular rolled so badly that I was almost seasick watching it. I learnt later that they rolled their gunwhales under and lost their boarding ladder.  Just before midnight the anchor dragged, we moved about twenty meters before it caught again.  That got my attention. I was up the rest of the night and at four in the morning picked up the anchor to try and find calmer conditions on the south side of the Island.  At dawn we anchored in Rescue Bay on the south of the island.  Conditions were still not nice, but Rescue Bay was far calmer than West Bay. 

Later in the morning I received a call from one of the other cruisers, they had their sewing machine out and asked if I had anything that needed sewing. Oh yes, could they sew a patch onto my Yankee? Yes was the response – wonderful, I immediately got to removing the Yankee from the furler and bundled into the dinghy. An hour later, repairs done I got the sail back on the furler. What a splendid gesture and I am very thankful.

I got ashore in Rescue Bay at low water. The sky’s were threatening and about thirty minutes after taking the photo it rained continuously for twelve hours.