After an easy ride into Willoughby Bay from Deltaville, we anchored not too far from a big catamaran and a trawler. That proved to be somewhat of a mistake, as it turns out. We had a simple meal of tator-tots and hot dogs (Andy Macy's favorite), then the storm we were watching in the distance suddenly pounced on us! As we were scrambling to put up the food and dishes, and to close all the hatches, we noticed that the big catamaran was in trouble! According to my wind meter, the wind was blowing 30kn, the waves kicked up to 4ft+ and that catamaran was dragging her anchor like it was hardly set. The really bad news was that she was headed directly for us!!!
Ed had the plan of fending the boat off of us, while I started the engine and did some contingency planning (let out more anchor rode? power to the side and let her go by? power forward and pull our anchor up and run away?). Finally, we see two guys come out onto the deck - one starts the engine and one goes up to inspect the anchor (yah, you are dragging, buddy). Ed asks them if they need help and the guy acts like we are at fault (yeah, we are dragging our boat UPwind - good call, captain). After head-scratching for a minute, they decide to pull up their anchor and power out of there. We are then entertained for the next hour as we watch them move around the Bay, trying to set their anchor. Eventually, they get it, a good distance from us, thank goodness!
Official product endorsement - We LOVE our Manson Supreme anchor. That sucker has NEVER dragged (drug?) on us and we've been in some really good storms. The set-up we use is a 35lb Manson Supreme anchor attached to 60ft of 5/16in hi-test chain and 200ft of 5/8in 3-strand rode. Properly set, that anchor is like tying off to a piling. It literally sets within 5ft of the drop point and it just doesn't move. Best of all, it easily resets through a 180 degree turn without any trouble. During last night's storm, we didn't move an inch. The only drawback, and it is a small one, is that it digs deep and pulls up a huge mud ball when weighing anchor. To me, that is a small price to pay for a good night's sleep. In the boating world, asking what is the best anchor is like asking what is the best religion - and you'll get passionate arguments for and against every anchor. To my mind, though, the only anchor I'll ever trust completely is a Manson or Rocna (very similar anchor).
After a breakfast of French toast and bacon, Ed and I went to the shore to see if we could fix a problem with our dinghy's little Nissan outboard. It idles great, but whenever we try to go fast, the motor would die. Idling around isn't a good plan when there is significant wind, so we needed to get it fixed. The plan was for Ed to fix it, but nooooo, Ed had no interest in that. He wanted ME to fix it, while he helped! I wasn't totally excited about this, since I was convinced that the motor would never work again after it blew up! Ed insisted I could do it, so the School of Ed began. While Ed supervised, I completely took apart the carburetor, then cleaned and rebuilt it. It actually wasn't nearly as hard as it looked. After testing the engine, we discovered that it still had the same problem! Next we dismantled the gas system and found some floating trash in the gas tank that was possibly blocking the intake. Still didn't fix it. Finally, Ed noticed an adjustment screw on the side of the carburetor - BINGO! Problem solved! Engine runs great and now I know how to disassemble and clean a carburetor! Thanks, Ed!!!
Finally, we worked out our schedule for the next couple of days. Mile "0" of the Intracoastal Waterway begins about 14 miles away, with the first lock 10 miles after that. Our plan is to be at the one of the mid-day lock openings and then go about half-way down the Dismal Swamp portion of the ICW. There is a nice place to tie up for the night, then we'll resume our journey to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. This will officially begin the ICW part of our trip to Cape Coral, Florida. We will be truly on our way at that point!
1 comment:
Cool Anchor, I went to the websites for both Mason and Rocna. Mason's slider for pulling out of mud would make all the diffence to me.
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