Saturday, May 1, 2021

Big Blow

 Well, yesterday was pretty nautical here on HAWSEPIPER's Afloat Global HQ/ Wind Farm. 


        I was looking forward to spring up here in the northeast. After the last few winters, which were pretty mild in terms of snowfall, Spring lasted about 4 days and then we got heat waves early. 


 This winter, the snowfall was still very mild, but the wind, damn, the wind was insane. We had gales coming in every 2-3 days all winter long. And so, with the days getting warmer, and spring weather here (t-shirts from 11am-3pm, light sweatshirts otherwise), I thought we were done with the gales. But sadly, nope. It blew its balls off yesterday, and we got the weirdest hull resonance going from the waves, so these waves of motion were causing the hull of the HQ to flex a few inches at bow and stern, about twice a second, and about 3-6 inches, all damn day. 

    3-6 inches is a hell of a lot of flex, and while the current HQ is still relatively new to me, the hull is not. The original HQ is a sister to this one... and it's a flexible thing, very forgiving to hull stress... it's just the weird ass motion yesteday made our feet itch and did funny stuff to the middle ear. It felt almost exactly like driving over well-laid cobble roads, if you've ever done that. Sleep was possible, although the vibration was funky, it wasn't unpleasant, a lot like being underway in a strong chop. And sleep we did. Noisy, though. Everything was squeaking with the resonance. The cabinets in the galley, the plates in the cabinets, the silverware in the drawer, even the toilet seat was chattering a bit. 

 And you know, still it was 10x better than dealing with a shitty swell at sea. 


No comments: