Anchors away

Despite the bbq offerings the other night, there was no sighting of mama bear and the two cubs.  We did, however, have a delicious dinner.  

It has been very windy for the past few days, and we spun around on the anchor in all different directions throughout last night and this morning.  We had been discussing our next move, and trying to decide which anchorage might offer some relief from the constant wind, and then I went down to the galley to make lunch. 

Suddenly, Michael jumped from his seat, swearing, and rushed to the aft deck, shouting something about being on shore.  I looked out the door to the aft deck, and saw only trees…no water, no air, no space, just trees.  And a beaver lodge. 

I dropped everything and ran to help, scaring poor Edee, who didn’t have a clue what was happening.  Michael already had the dinghy started, and I jumped in. We headed for the anchor line, hoping that we could use that to tow the boat out of the two feet of water and the muddy shoreline where she rested and back into deeper water.  No luck.

We went back towards the boat, and took one of the docking lines from the bow, already attached to a cleat there, and wrapped the end onto a cleat on the dinghy.  Michael put the dinghy motor into reverse, and started to back away.  Nothing.  At least, not at first.  Then, ever so slowly, we sensed motion.  And then it started to rain, of course!

With the motor smoking from the extra load, we inched our way away from the shore, towing the mother ship with us.  Soon, we were at a safe enough distance and in deep enough water, that Michael could get on board, start the engines, and haul the anchor.  When the anchor broke the surface, there was a ball of weeds and mud so large that it appeared to double the size of the anchor.  No wonder it couldn't dig in and hold us in the increased winds.

We went to a different, less weedy part of the bay, reset the anchor, and finally managed to take a breath.  This is only the second time in all of our boating that we have dragged an anchor, and it’s not something I want to repeat. 

Sorry, but there are no photos of this adventure – we were a bit busy.