Quote:
Originally Posted by Capt Chuck
. . . Hey Denny
What did you do, take part in some of "Don's Lightning" and fall asleep at the wheel & forget the tide  |
Chuck,
I had some of "Don's Lightning" at Long Point and knew enough to stay away from that stuff, as good as it is!
Actually I think the root cause was that I've just been cruising too long and got overconfident! Ever since my first Bahamas trips in the mid-late '70's, I have ALWAYS used the Bahamian moor whenever I anchor for the night, i.e., 2 anchors set 180 degrees apart, with both rodes leading to bow cleats. The current really rips off the Little Bahama Bank, and if you aren't ready for it, you'll either end up in the gulf stream or hard aground when the tide changes! With 300' of line on the bow anchor and 100' on the stern, it's easy to let out 100' off the bow, drop the stern anchor, and pull back 50' on the bow line.
I had spent 2 nights anchored off the N. end of Anclote in relatively deep water with plenty of swinging room, using 6:1 scope with 20' of chain with only one anchor and no problems. On Saturday night, it was blowing 20-25 kts from the NW and getting cold, so I anchored in a little closer to the beach than normal behind some trees to get out of the wind. Definitely should have put out the stern anchor! Obviously wasn't thinking too clearly after that all-afternoon feast at the sandbar! About 4 am Gillie woke up sliding off the bunk with the boat healed over about 30 degrees to stbd and me sound asleep on the stbd side of the hull! Said it reminded him of Gilligans Island, with "Gillie and the Professor" high & dry on the beach! We improvised by stuffing his back pack under the center cushion to raise it up to keep him in the bunk. Gillie then went back to sleep! He must be used to sleeping through earthquakes - I think he can sleep anywhere!
When daylight came, the anchor line was pointing SE out into the water, so I first thought we'd had a wind shift of 180 degrees during the night, which I’ve never experienced in Fl. with a slow moving cold front! However, I later concluded that we were simply a victim of the "pendulum effect", aggravated by all the line I had let out, where the boat was swinging much more than normal due to the turbulence coming off the clump of trees. High tide was about 11 pm, and I think it touched bottom sometime during the outgoing tide just long enough to hold it there, and the tide did the rest. Looked like we touched at about half tide; the boat was almost fully afloat on the incoming tide when Ken and Dave arrived, so a brief tug was all it took to get us off, but thanks Ken, you probably helped us get underway about a half hour sooner than if we'd waited for the tide! We were fortunate that it was a soft sand beach, so no damage done, but a good lesson learned!
Several years ago I discovered a good songwriter and singer named Eileen Quinn
http://www.cruisingworld.com/people/eileen-quinn, a Canadian sailor who writes lots of song about the cruising lifestyle. The lyrics in her song “Cruising Too Long” totally explains how I got into that situation . . .
"Early in our cruising, we feared we'd run aground.
We never did, we took such care with each little new thing.
Over time we grew less timid, confidence we found.
NOW WE RUN AGROUND A LOT, BECAUSE WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING!
NOTHING LIKE EXPERIENCE TO HELP YOU GET IT WRONG!
These are the signs we've been cruising too long:
All the islands look the same!
West Marine knows our name!
We haven't cut our hair this year (haven’t cut mine in 10 years!)
All our T-shirts mention beer!
We've been cruising far too long!"
Despite my anchoring debacle, Gillie and I had some good laughs about it! I've been to most of the gatherings and overall it was the best one yet, thanks to folks like Dixon and Susan for getting the ball rolling, Bill & Carla for hosting the Friday night feast, Rusty & Tabatha, Kmoose and Connor for providing all the seafood, and Sandy for his special culinary talents! And thanks to guys like Terry and Dave for their outstanding craftsmanship and creativity in setting the standards that inspire the rest of us to keep these old boats shipshape and running better than ever! Denny