Position: N 43 41.286 W 070 05.455
Jewell
Island is another picture perfect Maine Island made different by the
fact that it was also a submarine spotting station during World War
II. The remains, a couple of concrete watch towers over looking the
Atlantic, bunker tunnels, and the
remains of quite a few buildings, stand a lonely sentinel over the
southern reaches of Casco Bay.
The
anchorage here is a bit tight. It's shaped like a long, narrow “U”
with rocks on both sides, shoal water ahead, and a narrow entrance
to the north. It's also very popular so it can be a bit difficult to
anchor without being on top of your neighbours.
As
we arrive a large sailboat is just leaving, what luck! We slip right
into his spot and drop the anchor. We're a bit closer than we'd like
to our new neighbour behind us, but we are satisfied and have
complete confidence in our anchor and our ground tackle. We should
sit tight in anything less than a gale.
 |
| Jewell Island anchorage on a less busy day |
The
next day a smaller boat comes in and anchors right in front of us. A
bit close for our taste, but not too bad. Mark has some chores to
do in the basement (under the cockpit), so he takes Julie ashore for
a walk, then proceeds to haul everything out into the cockpit so he
can get at what he's working on. Both seats, the cockpit sole,
everything is covered with the stuff we stow in the basement when
it's not in use. Lines, buckets, oil change pumps, storage boxes
full of various stuff, all conspire to completely clutter the
cockpit. The big lazerette hatch is wide open and Mark is busily
doing whatever it is that he does down there in that cavernous, yet
tiny space.
Julie
has a lovely walk ashore and when she returns calls Mark on the VHF
to come and get her. She notices the new boat is a bit closer than
it was so she tells Mark to stop by and tell them on his way in.
Mark clambers out of the basement and sees the boat heading toward us
– but no one's on deck! He hops in the dinghy to let them know.
He hears a “Holy shit!” and they both pop up. She starts the
engine, he starts hauling up the anchor by hand. “The anchor is
caught on something – I can't haul it up.” he says. Mark says
“you could be caught on our chain. Just sit tight – don't do
anything until I get back with my wife. We'll haul our anchor and
get it all sorted out. You just keep still and fend off if
necessary.” He rows in quickly and picks up Julie.
While
Mark is picking up Julie (a two minute trip each way), another boater
has dinghied over to the smaller boat to help them. In our absence,
they have decided to put their anchor rode on one of their winches to
help them haul it up. As we arrive back aboard Rachel they've
succeeded in lifting their anchor out of the water and, sure enough,
our chain is caught on it. Unfortunately, their little exercise has
also managed to pull our anchor loose in the process. So much for
waiting until we got back like Mark asked!!
Now
both boats are starting to drift back onto the boat behind Rachel.
The smaller boat is still attached to Rachel by our anchor chain and
their crew is starting to freak out!! We see what is happening and
rush back to Rachel. Julie leaps aboard, grabs a boat hook, and
fends the other boat off while Mark secures the dinghy, fights his
way through all the basement stuff in the cockpit and gets the engine
started. By now we're only about 15 feet from the boat behind us and
closing. Mark motors slowly forward and that disaster is averted.
Julie
suggests to the crew of the other boat (in no uncertain terms!!) that
they would be well served to post one of their member to focus their
energy on keeping our two boats from bashing into each other while we
get things sorted out. Meanwhile, Mark has been leaping back and
forth (still over all the basement junk in the cockpit) between the
helm and the port side of the boat where he is intermittently fending
the other boat off and tying on fenders to protect Rachel while
keeping us all from drifting any further back.
Up
on the bow, Julie is letting out more chain to take the tension off
their anchor. Finally the small boat is able to unhook and drop our
chain from their anchor. Now that they are free, they again start to
drift......once again right towards Rachel. “Fend off” Julie
shouts. She's on the bow madly getting the anchor up so that Mark
can maneuver away. Finally the anchor comes off the bottom, Julie
signals Mark “she's up” and he steers out into open water. Phew.
The
little boat moves further up into the anchorage to reset their
anchor. Rachel is finally anchored slightly ahead of her original
spot with some extra chain out, and we can now relax and take a deep
breath. Phew!!! Is it cocktail time, yet?
But
wait! The cockpit is still full of 'stuff'! Poor Mark still has his
boat jobs to finish, then has to re-stow the basement when he's done.
What
a drag!
