We’re pretty well protected from the southeast and the south, but when the wind begins to clock to the southwest we’ll know it’s time to move further down river for better protection. It’s still blowing 20-30 and we can see whitecaps about 200’ off to starboard where the wind is churning up the water.
We decide it’s time to go. We follow the usual drill – Julie on the bow operating the windlass and washing off the chain, and Mark at the helm. These roles are pretty much dictated by Mark’s color blindness and his inability to easily see the difference in color between chain and mud, and the fact that the chain locker drains under our V-berth into the bilge. Smelly mud is not welcome here!
As Julie begins hauling up the chain, Mark notices that the dinghy is still well astern. We always pull it in close to prevent the towing line from getting wrapped in Rachel’s propeller in case Mark needs to reverse for any reason – obviously we’ve forgotten to do this. We also have a security cable attached which we usually remove before hauling anchor. Since, in this case we’re just going a short distance, we decided to leave both in place but have forgotten to shorten them.
Mark drops into neutral and begins hauling in the line, figuring he has time to also take in the security cable before we need to get under way.
Suddenly we hear “WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK!!”
What the heck? This is a new noise.
Julie looks back, sees the stern of the dinghy sticking up in the air, bouncing up and down like a 4 year old who’s been Trick Or Treating all night, and screams “MARK!! THE DINGHY!!!”
Mark looks down. Uh oh. The transmission is in reverse. Not neutral. How could that be? He drops it into neutral and looks aft. Belatedly, he realizes that he must have been in neutral already before he shifted. DOH!! Talk about a “Homer” moment…..
And now poor Belle is tight up against Rachel’s stern, her bow nearly under water, and her stern raised high in the air. The tow lines are free – that’s not the problem. Sheesh. It’s the blankety-blank stainless steel security cable. It’s all twisted. It must be caught in the prop and wrapped around the shaft. We ain’t a-goin’ nowhere like this! So we drop the anchor, let out the chain, and Rachel settles herself to the anchor again.
Mark gets into the dinghy and is able to untwist the cable enough to lower Belle’s stern to a more normal position and allow us to tie her tight against Rachel’s side, but he’s unable to completely free the cable. Looks like it’s time for a swim.
The wind is still clocking, the whitecaps are now about 150 ft off to starboard – we figure we have about an hour before we have to haul the anchor in the teeth of the wind – not a very pleasant thought.
Mark starts down the ladder into the water. Brr he’s back up in a jiffy, “Where’s my wetsuit? It’s freezing in there!” He dons his wetsuit, mask, and fins, and goes over the side. There are about 7 wraps of cable around the propeller shaft. Luckily, it only takes him about 20 minutes to free the prop and clear the cable.
Thank goodness we bought this bulletproof Trinka dinghy, our old one, we suspect, would not have held up to such abuse.
He gets back in Rachel, strips off, takes a quick shower, and we manage to raise anchor before the wind clears our protection. We move down river and re-anchor as planned. The wind backs a bit, making our new anchorage a bit bumpier than we’d hoped, but a few hours later it’s back where we expected it to be and things smooth out. After a comfortable night we proceed on our way toward Beaufort, NC (remember – in NC it’s “bow-furt”).
Needless to say, we’ve added “Secure dinghy” to our leaving anchor checklist.
Slowly going dinghy,
We decide it’s time to go. We follow the usual drill – Julie on the bow operating the windlass and washing off the chain, and Mark at the helm. These roles are pretty much dictated by Mark’s color blindness and his inability to easily see the difference in color between chain and mud, and the fact that the chain locker drains under our V-berth into the bilge. Smelly mud is not welcome here!
As Julie begins hauling up the chain, Mark notices that the dinghy is still well astern. We always pull it in close to prevent the towing line from getting wrapped in Rachel’s propeller in case Mark needs to reverse for any reason – obviously we’ve forgotten to do this. We also have a security cable attached which we usually remove before hauling anchor. Since, in this case we’re just going a short distance, we decided to leave both in place but have forgotten to shorten them.
Mark drops into neutral and begins hauling in the line, figuring he has time to also take in the security cable before we need to get under way.
Suddenly we hear “WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK!!”
What the heck? This is a new noise.
Julie looks back, sees the stern of the dinghy sticking up in the air, bouncing up and down like a 4 year old who’s been Trick Or Treating all night, and screams “MARK!! THE DINGHY!!!”
Mark looks down. Uh oh. The transmission is in reverse. Not neutral. How could that be? He drops it into neutral and looks aft. Belatedly, he realizes that he must have been in neutral already before he shifted. DOH!! Talk about a “Homer” moment…..
And now poor Belle is tight up against Rachel’s stern, her bow nearly under water, and her stern raised high in the air. The tow lines are free – that’s not the problem. Sheesh. It’s the blankety-blank stainless steel security cable. It’s all twisted. It must be caught in the prop and wrapped around the shaft. We ain’t a-goin’ nowhere like this! So we drop the anchor, let out the chain, and Rachel settles herself to the anchor again.
Mark gets into the dinghy and is able to untwist the cable enough to lower Belle’s stern to a more normal position and allow us to tie her tight against Rachel’s side, but he’s unable to completely free the cable. Looks like it’s time for a swim.
The wind is still clocking, the whitecaps are now about 150 ft off to starboard – we figure we have about an hour before we have to haul the anchor in the teeth of the wind – not a very pleasant thought.
Mark starts down the ladder into the water. Brr he’s back up in a jiffy, “Where’s my wetsuit? It’s freezing in there!” He dons his wetsuit, mask, and fins, and goes over the side. There are about 7 wraps of cable around the propeller shaft. Luckily, it only takes him about 20 minutes to free the prop and clear the cable.
Thank goodness we bought this bulletproof Trinka dinghy, our old one, we suspect, would not have held up to such abuse.
He gets back in Rachel, strips off, takes a quick shower, and we manage to raise anchor before the wind clears our protection. We move down river and re-anchor as planned. The wind backs a bit, making our new anchorage a bit bumpier than we’d hoped, but a few hours later it’s back where we expected it to be and things smooth out. After a comfortable night we proceed on our way toward Beaufort, NC (remember – in NC it’s “bow-furt”).
Needless to say, we’ve added “Secure dinghy” to our leaving anchor checklist.
Slowly going dinghy,
