Tuesday, July 27, 1993

Yesterday afternoon, Roy went to a little canvas shop near the marina to see about getting the cover for the anchor winch modified. He had added a large cleat to the top of the winch several weeks ago, so the cover no longer fit. The woman came to the boat at 9 this morning to get the measurements. The cover came out wrong on the first try, but on the second try she got it right. Didn't take long to do the job, and the charge was only $22.50. Glad to get that done.
The wind was blowing 15 or 20 knots out of the east. We wanted to leave, but the wind was blowing us towards the dock. It would have been difficult for us to get away without hitting another boat or the dock, so Roy went up to the marina office to see if someone with a small boat could give us a little pull. Apparently, many boats have this problem at this marina; they have a small powerboat for just this purpose. He came right out and pulled us away from the dock. Then we were on our way.
The channel in and out of the marina is very narrow. There is a red marker at the entrance, but all the other markers are green. I had read that one should stay at least 100 feet away from the markers, so that's what I did when I brought the boat in yesterday and had no problem. Going out this morning, Roy was at the wheel. I kept telling him to stay 100 feet to the left of the markers, and he said he was, but when we went by #3, even as poor a judge of distance as I am, I knew we weren't any 100 feet away--more like 20. Seconds later, there was the too familiar thump. We were aground between markers 3 and 1. Another 100 yards and we'd have been home free in deep water.
I radioed the Coast Guard and found out the tide had just turned and was coming in, so I figured we'd float free in a couple of hours, but Roy said the wind would just blow us farther up on the shoal, so he prepared to kedge. He dropped the kedging anchor, with 100 feet of line on it, over the port side of the boat and got his Royak ready. He was going to carry the anchor as far as he could and drop it. Then he'd come back to the boat and use the windlass to pull us off the shoal. However, while he was getting ready, the powerful tidal current pushed us off the shoal. Roy immediately grabbed the wheel, throttled up, and headed towards the channel entrance, totally forgetting he'd dropped an anchor. Bingo bango, the 100 feet of line played out and wrapped itself around the prop. Roy stopped immediately, turned off the engine, put on his face mask, and went into the water to assess the situation. He came back to report that the line was wrapped so tightly it couldn't be pulled off; he'd have to cut it.
Picture our situation: the wind was still blowing about 20 knots; we couldn't start the engine until the line was off the prop; there was nothing but the kedging anchor keeping us from blowing on to the rocks about half a mile away, and Roy was getting ready to cut the line to the kedging anchor. I recommended that we drop the bow anchor prior to cutting the line. Roy said, "I was thinking of that, too," so we dropped the bow anchor.
Roy tied the yellow floating line to the anchor line so he'd be able to find the anchor. Then he cut the line near the prop, put on his face mask again, and dived with a sharp knife to cut the line off the prop. He was able to get almost all of it off. The little that was left wouldn't hurt.
Next he turned his attention to retrieving the kedging anchor. He pulled up the floating line until he could grab the anchor line. He couldn't pull up the anchor by hand, so he wrapped the line around the winch on the mizzen mast and began cranking it in. All of a sudden, CRAAAACK! The strain was too much for the mizzen mast. The mast split. This was not one of our better days.
Roy decided we should get the boat to safe water and then figure out how to retrieve the anchor, so he attached the white rubber float to the anchor rode and tossed it in the water. We started the engine, raised the bow anchor, and headed out the channel entrance into relatively deep water (20 feet). While I steered the boat around in circles, Roy got in his Royak and paddled back to the white float. He was unable to raise the anchor by hand from his Royak, so he attached his red floating cushion to the line to make it more visible (the white float was hard to see among all the whitecaps). He returned to the boat, pulled his Royak aboard, and we took the boat back to the red cushion and dropped anchor. Roy wrapped the line that was attached to the kedging anchor around the port windlass and cranked it in. Soon the anchor was back on the boat and we were heading out the channel entrance. Our little misadventure was over. The rest of the day was pleasant and uneventful.
We reached the town of Cape Charles in the early evening but anchored out instead of going to a marina. It was bouncy but otherwise peaceful.