Rattled

South Burlington, Vermont 

We slept at Jen's house last night, but this morning we went back to Shelburne Bay to check on the boat.  Horrors! She dragged overnight, even with Bessie our 80 pound fishermans anchor.  The GPS said that we dragged only 50 feet, but it looked like more than 200 feet to me.  (When we raised Bessie however, she had dug in deep, so she would not have dragged any more. )

I guess that I must rate that anchorage by Allen's Hill as poor holding.  We tried it twice and dragged both times, and with two different anchors. 

So what to do? Some of those nasty severe thunderstorms are on the way here today.  Luckily, the harbor master Dan told us that we could use a mooring that happened to be vacant this year. So we move to the mooring this morning, so Tarwathie  is secure.   Thank you very much Dan.  We also met another sailor this morning who told us a harrowing story about tearing his thumb off while sailing in the Bahamas.  He was lucky enough to get flown to Miami where they sewed it back on.  Today he has almost full function.  Whew. 

Wannabe cruisers take note.  When you are enjoying yourself on shore, there is always a nagging doubt as to how secure your boat (your home) is with you away.  Big boats have enough crew to leave an anchor watch crew on board.   Marinas make you feel secure, and in most cases they are secure, but they ruin your budget.  If we stayed in marinas all the time, it would use about 100% of our income.