Cold, Grey and Wet

Beaufort, SC
No LL

Well, we did stay in the salt marsh behind Fenwick Island all day. The gale event turned out to be more of a rain event than a windy one. We did have some trouble though.

Around 1700 I looked out the window and I could see that we were moving. We were moving fast, about 1 knot. I checked the GPS and sure enough the anchor was dragging. I caught it before the anchor dragging alarm went off.

There was no wind to push us but the current was fierce and the bottom holding wasn't good. We put on our rain gear and went out on deck to set a second anchor. I also increased the scope on the primary anchor from 100 to 140 feet of chain. For 15 feet of water that is sure a lot of scope. We did however drop a second anchor just in case. The weather forecast called for 50 knot gusts in the evening.

This morning we got up an hour before dawn. The anchors held us OK, but now it was time to pay the price. You see, just about every time we set two anchors, the rodes get wrapped around one another and we have a devil of a time getting them up again. It was no different this morning. It took about 40 hours to get both anchors on board again.

Anyhow, we were able to continue our trip at high tide, avoiding the danger spots, but bucking wind and currents today. For most of the morning, our speed made good was only 2.5 knots.

Tonight, we're anchoring outside Beaufort and hopefully tomorrow we'll take another shot at going outside.