Gypsy Cruising

8 June

This is going to be a short post.

The day started early.  Phone alarms went off at 2:45 and by 3:10 we were out of the marina.  We settled into a quiet routine almost immediately outside of the river entrance - running deep with only the mainsail up and doing over six knots, the boat steered itself for Double Island Point on route to the Wide Bay Bar.  Before very long the clouds came in and the rest of the day was grey and wet.

The weather forecast predicted the seas would moderate during the day to under 1 meter, pretty good for crossing the Bar.  Looking back, I think they did actually began to moderate but then started to build again.  By the time we got to the Bar about four boats had crossed safely enough.  We were the last to go, exactly on time for slack water at high tide.  Half way across I looked back and saw an enormous, rolling rogue wave coming up behind us, breaking at its top and dwarfing the boat.  Right to the very moment before it hit I thought it was going to swamp us.  However, at the last instant the Gypsy lifted her stern over its top and I don't think we took a drop of water on board.  Not that that was it.  We broached badly, spinning around to the right with the massive force of the water that hit us and rolling heavily down the back side of the wave.  We got ourselves back onto the proper track, shaken but otherwise ok.

The remainder of the crossing was lumpy but uneventful.  A further couple of hours motoring up to Garry's Anchorage was completed in possibly a greater grey gloom than we'd seen before, pretty much mirroring my feelings at the time.

I really don't know how serious the incident was at the Bar, but I'm hugely thankful to the folks at Catalina that they designed and built such a sound boat as the Gypsy.  I think she earned her pay today.