Voyaging America's Great Loop Aboard Still Waters II
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Anchors Aweigh
Our adventurers made an uneventful run from Stuart to Vero Beach, Florida on Thursday, July 9th. The run was a total of 38 miles, 5 bridges and no locks.
Captain Geoff Gow was back on board to complete the training of our crew. Today’s training consisted of fueling at the dock, anchoring, man overboard, and mooring.
Weeeeeell maybe it was not that uneventful. But first let me back up a bit. Our crew had previously inspected the anchor chain and concluded the last 5 feet needed to be removed. However, the crew presently does not have the tooling to cut the chain, so the job was put on the list of things to do.
While performing the anchor training in about 10 foot of water, the chain broke with the anchor set and about 100 ft of chain played out. Chain being chain and slightly heavier than water, the chain quickly disappeared into the water.
The crew went back up to where they had first let the anchor out and let out the backup anchor.
Geoff made a galant effort to try snorkeling to find the chain of the lost anchor, but visibility was only about 18 inches due to the tidal current. After about 10 minutes, all agreed that this strategy would not work and it was time to move on.
A little watermelon was consumed while our crew licked their wounds and cooled off. When it was time to bring in the second anchor, Geoff asked what would be the chance of dragging the anchor and finding the first chain. All agreed that is was 1 in a hundred, but what the heck, never hurts to try.
First pass over the suspect area resulted in no anchor chain. However, on the second pass,the anchor took a grab on something and tightened quickly. After a little effort, anchor boy (Dave) finally brought the anchor to the surface, and low and behold there was the original anchor chain.
Geoff and Dave worked together to get hold of the chain and bring the anchor back onboard.
Sometimes it pays to be lucky rather than good. Oh, and a little prayer from Claudia and almost instant response is good also. Thank you Jesus.
After the high fives were done, our crew set course for Vero Beach. Once at the Vero Beach City Marina, the last bit of instruction was completed in the mooring field. The crew practiced about three times and then finally settled down for a little rest.
Geoff was taking a rental car back to Stuart, so when the rental place called and said they were at the dock, it was time to motor over to the dock and say bye. Geoff promoted the ‘would be skipper’ to ‘newbie skipper’ and wished the crew well.
They managed to get away from the dock and back on the mooring ball #22 without incident.
Rib eyes for dinner to celebrate the removal of the training wheels, and then back to work to straighten out the anchor mess. Anchor chain and rope is all over the fore deck and needs to be stowed properly.
No rest for the weary…………….
2 Comments on “Anchors Aweigh”
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Voyaging America's Great Loop Aboard Still Waters II 
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Erik, please tell David his sister says
Dragging for lost fishing poles as a child must have been training ground, er, water, for dragging for anchor and chain as a wanna be skipper.
Congrats on both finding the anchor and the promotion to full skipper.
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