Yesterday it was said to be very windy out there so i sat in the Bedwell Harbor bay. Actually spent like half the day blogging, it really takes too much time, including the photo processing.

At 1 point i looked up from the laptop to notice the shore was markedly closer. Then closer. No doubt about, the anchor was dragging.

My first 'cruising' experience was 2 months in the Gulf of California (Mexico) in the 1980s. I had almost no sailing experience, but i did a lot of research, learned a lot, geared up. I had 3 anchors: the tiny 5-pound Danforth that came with the boat; and then i bought a very large Danforth, and a 30 or 35-pound CQR. The 2 new ones were much bigger than what my little 26' sailboat ~needed, but i knew anchors were important. i also upgraded the chain and rope rode beyond all reason.

And they worked really well. I generally set both of the big anchors as additional assurance. It was windy in Baja, and the anchoring spots often small, marginal. Early in the trip, after a very long day of sailing which began at 2am and went to after dark, i double-anchored in a bay and went to bed; but it wasnt long til a huge blow came up, from exactly the wrong direction. The wind was blowing unimpeded up the bay. If the anchors dragged i could be impaled on the close rocks. But i couldnt up-anchor and move somewhere better, because, alone, as soon as i got the anchors up (from the bow), the wind would blow me to the rocks before i'd get to the outboard (at the stern). So i rode it out (i wrote at the time, it felt like being in a washing machine), trying to stay awake in case the anchors slipped, but when that became impossible i'd sleep but wake every 15minutes for a check. (Sleep-deprived, i hallucinated the voices of friends telling me what to do, but i couldnt understand what they were saying.) Finally i did fall uncontrollably asleep, waking before dawn to find the storm abating and boat intact. The anchors held.

And there were other times like that (tho' less extreme personally), Baja and later down the East Coast, Maine to Florida. I considered myself a good anchorer.

(In fact the only time they didnt work was once in the Florida Keys, notorious for its slimy "poor holding ground". We'd gone ashore for Thanksgiving Dinner, returning after dark. A steady breeze had just come up, and when we motored out in the dinghy, the boat was gone! Hurrying downwind, we caught up to it in the dark. It was headed out to sea at several knots, anchors slipping thru the slime.

So yesterday i fired up the outboard, then went to the bow to pull up the single Danforth. It was covered in kelp, and an odd brick-like rock stuck between its teeth. I motored back out to a safe spot, dropped anchor, played out some line, and even pulled on it with outboard force to make sure it was well set.

It was good all day. Tho there is wind here, it isnt strong in the cove and the wind waves are tiny.

Last nite i was wakened by a loud clunking on the hull, right by my head, like a log was beating there. Investigating, the source was a mooring buoy. The anchor had dragged hundreds of yards, luckily snagging on the mooring, otherwise i'd maybe gone all the way to the harbor.

So i tied off to the mooring buoy and here i'll stay thru this 2nd hi-wind-warning day.