Tue12Mar

Anchoring Mystery, and Surprise

Cold and rainy outside, warm and dry inside. Anchored (see adventtwo.blogspot.com "Location") and I just may stay anchored. They say that this rainy slop will pass and I may get going then, if I see that I can get to another good place to stop.
Anchoring is a black magic art. Everybody has opinions, and everybody is wrong. Just when I think I have done everything right something happens and I have to start thinking all over again. Yesterday I was in very shallow water, with very fast reversing currents. I put down about 70 feet of chain, and went to bed. In the morning I sensed something was wrong. The anchor chain had gotten wrapped around the keel. Instead of holding the boat bow to the current, the boat was sideways to the current, and it was not happy. She was oscillating back and forth and pitching sideways. (Does "pitching sideways" make sense?) There was spectacular turbulence downstream of the sideways boat. This happens frequently when using nylon anchor rode, nylon does not lay on the bottom as chain does, but I have never had it happen with chain. The problem is that with any current at all the boat will stay in that configuration. Getting it off the keel is a problem, and the anchor can not be pulled in until it is off. What is usually done is to lower a weight down the rode, and the weight will pull the rope off the keel. In my case I waited until the current slackened, and quickly, before the boat could drift with the current, let out about 50 feet of chain. It dropped nicely of the keel. Then my problem was getting the anchor up. The tremendous pull on the anchor by the boat being held in the current had set the anchor deeply into the bottom. It was finally freed by pulling the rode to up-and-down, and powering the boat forward. Even then it took several tries. And I don't know why it happened, or how to prevent it in the future.
I have been off the web ever since I left. I do have an outside wifi antenna that works very well in the Bahamas, but in the us most wifi systems are blocked. Sometimes there is a short time subscription available. Down in Cocoa, Fla. there were two subscription systems, and some possibilities of free connections. I tried them all, the whole time I was there. I finally went to the public library to do some US Power Squadron business. Still, everywhere I stop I give it a try. You just never know. Then, this morning, in the middle of Georgia marshland, I got a good fast hookup. Good enough to catch up on my email and listen to streaming BBC at the same time. I could even upload some pictures. After two pictures, however, it went away. I'll try again before I move on. The strange thing is that I can see for miles across the marsh in all directions. Way off in the distance there are red lights of towers, and there is the loom in the sky over probably Brunswick, but nothing else. I have no idea where it could be coming from. Look at my position, and select satellite for an aerial view. You will see what I mean.
By the way, you can help me shortten the distribution list by going to advent.blogspot.com then looking down on the right, and putting your email address where it says "Follow by email" then submit. Any update will be sent to you. Thank you, Normandie.
Woody, the picture of the dolphine teasing the dog, and the dog barking at the dolphine, the boat was a Monk 36, Peggy Sue. We have been playing leap frog all the way up.
When the rain passes I will move on, maybe.
Bill