North East 10-15, freshening to gales of 35

Flood tide

Tania and the kids dropped me at Gyro Park  8ish Friday morning. The forecast had been less than reassuring with thunder storms, a gale warning and water spout advisory. Oddly, none of that came to pass. No thunder, no water spouts and this morning the wind was light as I motored out to Trouper II in the inflatable dinghy powered by my new 4hp Evinrude.

Wanting to get underway as soon as possible and also wanting to outrun the forecast gale, I stowed my gear and powered off the mooring. As per my research on how to tow an inflatable, I had removed the outboard and hung it on the push-pit of T2. This would prove to be a very wise decision.

The journey out of Caddy Bay and through Banes Channel was smooth 'sailing' due to the flood tide and lack of wind but the condition was about to deteriorate. Oh, the weather app was calling for a 70% chance of showers as well. But that also never happened. In facT, I managed to enjoy some sunshine on the trip and even stripped down to T-shirt. Then the gale hit.

Just off Cordova Bay the wind increased to gale force from the Northwest. (The forecast had called for South westerlies). As I rounded Little Zero Rock, T2 was healing before the wind. It was hard to pick out the many crab and prawn traps due to the sea of whitecaps. Suddenly the engine bogged down. My first thought was I had snagged the prop on a prawn trap but as I turned to look aft, I noticed my inflatable dinghy had flipped completely over and the transom was digging in and acting like a sea anchor. I immediately throttled back and when I looked back again, the damn thing was right-side up. If not for the fact that I had managed to lose my oars, I wouldn't have believed my own eyes. Thankfully I had the fore site to hang the outboard from T2's pushpit, otherwise it likely would have been on the bottom by now.

 The rest of the trip to Tsehum Harbour was without incident, although the wind continued very strong and the seas choppy.

Approaching Little Zero Rock as wind picks up. Notice new outboard, safely stored for the trip.