When anchoring, anchor like the wind is going to blow 50 knots and you the waves will come over the front of the boat....because it just might happen.
The weather guy on the VHF radio said up to 5 knots tonight. My ass...it was up to 25 knots before that night ended. It was a long night.
The anchorage was not great if the winds come from the East or North. Guess what. .....yup Northeast. It's worse if the winds pick up...yup 25 Knots.
Earlier in the evening before the sun went down, we anchored in calm weather, and only 1 other boat around. Those 2 people on that boat happened to be naked on the beach. She was pulling a large driftwood stump back to the boat and he was walking the beach. Welcome to Alabama.
The night started nice. lots of stars, calm waters, and our friend billy did not show up at our boat. But then things turned for the worst.
The wind picked up. Well the wind generator worked all night and charged our batteries to the top. That was the first time the windy actually carried his weight on the boat. Prior to that night, that thing was just added weight. That night, he worked hard. And vibrated the boat a lot.
The wind picked up, the waves picked up, we got scared. About 12:39 I asked Marina what time it was, she said she doubted it was time to get up. The front of the boat where Marina sleeps, well should I say used to sleep, is an interesting place. As the waves come up to the boat, the front of the boat rises and you feel like you gained 20 pounds from the pressure of the rise. As the boat comes down off the wave, you lose 40 pounds, now you are near weightlessness. On top of that you get a bit of forward motion as the anchor chain grabs ahold and pulls and hangs on to the bottom of the ocean. Now I want you to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!
About 12:39 I go out side to readjust the anchor set up I have. This takes me about 1 hour. I wish I could tell you in detail, but what I can say, at night, some of the fears go away. You can't see that you you can't see land on 3 sides of you. All you see is your boat and 3 feet of water around you. I could be in lake Travis. I adjusted in the dark. Do you know what it's like to pull 24,000 pounds of boat forward so you can loosen the tension and let out more anchor chain. Well you can only pull it forward on the downward motion of the boat on the wave. On the upward motion you better have that rope wrapped around something, because you can't hold it. I have a black finger nail to prove that. It almost got stuck in the windlass...i yanked it out.
After that was done, I went back inside to sleep...ya right. about 1 hour later I went to check on things. Back to the front of the boat. Wind still blowing, waves still pounding. I proceed to the front of the boat and kneel down near the anchor line. My left forearm touches something soft. It feels like feathers.....wait it is feathers. it's a Blue Heron. It's a big bird that is sleeping on the side of the boat. He stands about 1 foot tall and wing span about 4 feet. He didn't notice that I touched him, but i did. he was sleeping( Bastard). I backed up...looked. and got scared. His head was in his feathers. he probably didn't hear or notice me because of the wind and waves. All at once he woke up. He looked, I looked. noone moved. I kinda approached him with my channel locks in my hand, he didn't move. I backup off. hmm....This time i touched him with the channel locks, he flew down to the water. This won't be the last time I hear from him.....I look at the anchor lines and go back inside.
About 5 minutes later..."KEVIN WHAT WAS THAT", I say "I don't know". it sounds like we just ran over a pile of stainless steel tubing. chang, chang, chang, cling, chang. this lasted for 2 seconds and then gone. What the fuck was that?
I go back out side. I see that damn bird flapping his wings and heading out into the water. The problem is his wings were banging against the stainless steel life lines which are held up by stainless steel posts. it makes quite a racket.
We didn't sleep much that night. Lesson learned. The weather man is wrong and anchor like the wind is going to blow 50 knots. Then at least I would not have had to spend so much time reanchoring at 1 am in the am.
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