Anchoring Woes

Shelburne Bay, Vermont
N 44 25.387 W 073 14.973

I created a bigger mess than I realized last night when we snagged a log with our anchor. The anchorage in Smugglers Harbor is very small, and the bottom holding is very poor. I tied the bow to an anchor point on shore and I used the dinghy anchor to hold the stern close to the other shore. This morning I woke suddenly at 0630 by a thump. It was the unmistakable sound of the keel hitting the bottom. We were aground.

I scrambled up on deck to see that the stern anchor had dragged and the wind shifted to push us to the opposite shore. We were aground on rocks. I also noted that everyone on the other boats in the harbor was up early and were waiting for me to provide the morning's entertainment. I quickly retrieved the stern anchor and the bow line. By that time, Libby was dressed and up on deck too. She lowered the Danforth anchor and 50 feet of chain and another 50 feet of rope rode into the dinghy. I
rowed it out the the place I hoped had a mud bottom and dropped it.

We then used the anchor windlass to pull in the anchor. I set the anchor at 90 degrees angle so that we could turn the bow in the direction of deeper water. At first it didn't work. I pulled in 40 feet of the rode without the anchor getting any bite at all. Finally, I got a little bite and turned the bow about 30 degrees. With that set, I went back, started the engine and goosed it. It worked. We moved only inches and then were afloat again. We retrieved the rest of the anchor and motored
out of the harbor. Our audience was rapt. The whole procedure took less than 15 minutes.

I should stress that if we made a similar mistake in an ocean anchorage where wave and/or tide action could have lifted and dropped us on to a rock bottom, it would have been a lot more serious. I'll have to resolve never to attempt such a precarious anchorage in salt water.

After we left the harbor, and after I finally got a cup of coffee, I looked about and found that it was a splendid day. It was grey with low hanging clouds but the clouds were blowing away and there was blue sky behind it. Still better, there was a nice 10-20 breeze on the stern quarter. I put up the jib, shut off the engine and we made an easy 5 knots toward Burlington.

We arrived in Burlington at exactly 1000. The mooring buoys there are free from 1000 to 1700 so our timing was perfect. We picked up a mooring, rowed in to shore, and I walked 2 miles to Jenny's office to borrow the keys to her truck.

When we had the truck we made good use of it to run errands. Libby did laundry. I dropped off the outboard motor at a Mercury dealer to get repaired. (I can't start it even after replacing the inner parts of the carburetor.) I used Jenny's WiFi to check mail and to post pictures on the blog. Then we did grocery shopping. (We were very low on spaghetti again. Horrors. Running out of spaghetti would be much worse than running aground.) By 1600 we were able to return the truck to Jenny and by
1700 we had slipped the mooring and were on our way again.

The good part was that the weather had improved throughout the day. By 1700, the sky was cloudless, and the air was exceptionally clear and we had a 20 knot wind. I enjoyed one of the best views of the Adirondak and Green Mountains that I've seen in years. I could clearly see the rock faces at the summits of Mount Mansfield and Camel's Hump.

We didn't want to go far from Burlington because Jenny may sail with us tomorrow, so we headed for Shelburne Bay. Shelburne Bay is one of my least favorite anchorages because we've had trouble with anchors dragging twice before in that bay. There are strong winds forecast for tonight so I hope we don't drag again. I know I won't sleep well worrying about it. We are in 20 feet of water and I have 120 feet of scope out.

On the plus side, it is almost dark now and we should get an excellent chance to view the Perseids Meteor Shower again tonight.