Passa På

ICW
No LL

The Swedes have a very good expression; passa på (pronounced pasah poe). Its meaning is similar to the English aphorisms, "Strike while the iron is hot." or "Make Hay while the sun shines."

Today our plan was to passa på and to go offshore and make a bee line for Florida. It's only 200 miles away as the crow flies. There was a weather window with favorable winds starting this morning that should have gotten us there in 48 hours or less. I even made an appointment to have a mechanic do some work on our boat in Florida next Tuesday.

Actually, it may have become a little rough. Tomorrow the winds were to kick up to gale force (maybe) and the seas would (maybe) increase to 12-15 feet. However, we've been stung so many times with overly scary weather forecasts that we decided to take the chance.

We got up at 0600 this morning, one hour before first light. However, before leaving I downloaded the weather forecasts for the regions between here and Florida. The conditions were deteriorating. Each successive forecast called for the strong weather to arrive earlier and to be stronger than the one before. I agonized over the decision. Go off shore or stay on the ICW? I finally decided to go, but by that time it was nearly 0800.

We pulled anchor and headed for the ocean 15 miles away on Winyah Bay. We had the wind and a very strong tidal current with us. We flew down the river at the breakneck speed of 9.5 knots! That's a record for Tarwathie except when we sailed in the Gulf Stream.

When we got to the end of the river however, the entrance turns NE for about 3 miles. As we approached the entrance, the wind increased a lot. It was blowing from the NE, right in to the entrance. We rounded the turn facing NE. It was too much for us. The wind was so strong that we lost steerage way even with full throttle on the motor. Loosing steerage means that the boat moves too slowly through the water and the rudder becomes ineffective. We couldn't steer. That means we were out of control. That's not a good situation with rocks and jetties, and wind, waves and currents all around us. As a matter of safety, I made a command decision. Turn around and go back!

We turned around. After making the turn on the return trip, we had the wind and the currents against us. We could only do 3 knots at full speed.

For Tarwathie to loose steerage under power means that the wind had to be blowing more than 33 knots. That's a lot more than the 10-15 knots forecast. There was one more factor to consider. If we had reached the end of the jetty with 2 knots of tidal current going out and 30 knots of wind blowing in; there would have been mountainous waves. Those conditions are very dangerous and certainly not the time to be out of control. Sigh.

How frustrating. We only needed 2-3 miles more out that channel before turning to the SW. If we had made that, we could have been in Florida in 2 days. Now, we are back on the ICW. It will take us at long as 10 days to get to Florida this way and we'll have to motor and to use 40 gallons of fuel en route. Dang.

If we had left 2 hours earlier we could have gotten out before the strong winds started. If only I hadn't waited to check the weather report first!! Double dang.

Of course, as I write, we are back on the ICW. The sun is shining and the wind has reduced to 10 knots. That's just the elements conspiring to torment a captain who made a choice. It seems that the grass is always greener with the choice not taken. Triple dang.

By the way, last time we decided to passa på was when we sailed from Block Island, RI to Norfolk, VA in 2 days. Our friend Andre on Aruba II was with us in Block Island. He decided to n0t passa på. He had business to do on Long Island so he didn't depart with us. Poor Andre, it took him a whole month of waiting and motoring to get to Norfolk. Such is the incentive for sailors to passa på.

Dang dangedy dong dang dang dang.