Stormy Nights

While I was back in the UK, Paul was left behind in Santa Ponça looking after ZigZag. Unfortunately, the weather decided to give him a challenging few days. What started as unsettled weather soon developed into some big storms.

The winds were regularly strong, with gusts reaching up to 50 knots blowing into the anchorage, and with a two meter swell at times, the conditions on board were very uncomfortable. Most of the worst of the storms happened during two nights, which made everything considerably more stressful. In the darkness, it was difficult to see what was happening around, and the noise of the howling wind and waves, made the nights seem very long. Obviously a tin of beer helps once things calm down a bit.

The strong winds caused several boats to start dragging their anchors. At one point, a boat was heading dangerously close to Ziggy’s bow, Paul already had the engine started as a precaution and was able to quickly steer out of its way to prevent a collision. It must have been quite scary, watching another boat drifting towards you in the dark. It is one thing steering to miss the boat, but then you never really know whether or not it’s dragging anchor and chain is going to hook on and take yours with it. By some miracle, this didn’t happen and Ziggy’s anchor held fast. The rogue (unoccupied) boat fortunately did eventually catch on to something and settled 50 meters from our stern.

However, all of the strain on ZigZag’s anchor took its toll when the snubber rope suddenly snapped. The snubber takes the strain off the windlass and helps prevent the anchor chain from being pulled out further. So losing it in those conditions was certainly not something Paul appreciated in the middle of the night. He had to quickly clamber to the front of a bouncing boat and lash a section of new rope on to the chain as a temporary fix to hold it until the morning, when the wind was expected to ease a little. Thankfully, we had a new chain hook and rope on board, which he was able to fit in slightly calmer weather, providing a more permanent solution.

There was some rain too, although unsurprisingly it was the wind that caused most of the problems, with boats swinging around on their anchors. Sadly, not every boat managed to ride out the conditions. A couple of local boats broke free from their moorings, ending up on the rocks and one washed up on the beach. Later, there was lots of debris in the water and a half sunken dinghy passed by Ziggy’s stern. The anchorage was a very different place from the peaceful bay we had enjoyed just a few days before.

Hearing all about his adventures while I was safely back on land did make me feel a little guilty, although secretly I was very happy not to have been there! Thankfully, the weather calmed down a little during the day, giving Paul the chance to catch up on some much needed sleep. He also had his electrical systems to keep him company, with the batteries needing regular checks as the limited sunshine meant there wasn’t enough solar power to keep everything fully charged.

Unfortunately, I haven’t got any pictures of the storms, Paul was too busy hanging on, so we’ll just have to take his word for it. Although my flight back was delayed by a couple of hours due to thunder storms in the area.

By the time I returned, the weather had improved, there were still some thunderstorms around but thankfully, the bay was a little calmer. We did one more trip to shore to provision then prepared Ziggy and planned our trip out of Santa Ponça.