Weekend at Anchor
Are we dragging? I think we’re dragging. Crap, we’re dragging! The wind was blowing 40+ knots, other boats in the area had started heading home, and we had just started dragging our anchor. This was after we had already settled in for the afternoon and had popped our first bottle of Champagne.
After weeks of isolation and boat work, Nymeria is in great condition. Our batteries are good, our generator is good, and no more water leaks in the strainer. The weather had been a tease for weeks too. Sunny and warm all week, then raining and stormy all weekend. But this weekend looked clear. Basically, we could not come up with a good excuse to not go out and anchor overnight. So that’s exactly what we did.
Saturday morning, we untied the lines and headed out to Red Fish Island. Red Fish is a popular anchoring spot in Galveston bay that can offer some good protection from the waves if the wind is right. Originally a natural island, it eroded away in the early 90’s and was rebuilt in 2003. Its just off the Houston ship channel and offers wonderful views of the huge ships as they pass by as well as clear views of Galveston and Trinity Bay. The city of San Leon sits a few miles south.
Sailing to the island was easy and uneventful. Wind was 7-10 kt right off our beam. Nymeria tends to like double digit winds better though. While she sails fine at 7kts, she really lights up and is happy at 10+. The trip out took just over 2 hours as were were pretty slow at about 3-4kts.
Once at the island, so were many others. When we arrived we counted at least 15 other boats anchored. This meant that our choice of spot was going to be fairly limited. With the sails down, we motored in and found a reasonable spot, not too close to others, but protected from the main flow of the waves. This would turn out to be a bit less than an ideal location later.
Setting an anchor is easy, mostly. There is a lot that goes into it. What type of anchor? What type of bottom? What type of rode? (the line or chain that your anchor is attached too.) how deep is it? Where is the wind? Where is the current? Where are the waves? Where are the other boats? What happens if the wind shifts? You get the idea. At Red Fish, the bottom is a muddy mess with some oyster shells thrown in. Its also shallow, approximately 7-9 Ft. We have a new 45Lb Mantus anchor and 250ft of all chain rode. Overkill by far for Galveston bay, but we want to be able to go and anchor anywhere. General rules say 5:1 scope (length of rode vs depth) so about 50Ft would be good. The wind was calm(ish) there were lots of boats, our anchor is huge, and I had read that in busy Caribbean anchorages 3:1 scope is sometimes all you can have. Because of this, I had been conservative and set a 4:1 (40Ft) scope. The anchor was set and everything felt good. Pop the champagne.
For a few hours life was good. We sat in the cockpit, enjoyed our drinks and relaxed. Lurking in the distance though, were some dark clouds. Not-so-suddenly the wind starts picking up. 15kts, 20kts, 25kts. We notice other boats beginning to pull anchor and head home. After checking our GPS and anchor alarms, seems were still sitting just fine so we wait it out. 30kts, 35. Now its getting real. Many boats have left. On the ones that are left, people are out on watch. We decided to start the engine just in case at this point. If we do start dragging we need to be able to react. 40Kts, 45…
We “think” we are dragging, but were not sure. If we are, it isn’t much. Then the anchor alarm goes off, I reset it, then it goes off again. Ok, were really dragging now. Since the engine was already started, Shannon put it in gear and started pushing against the wind. she had to use nearly full throttle as I pulled in the anchor. by the time we were free, we had dragged nearly all the way out of the anchorage. not 40 ft off to starboard was the rock shoal of the end of the island. hitting that would end our sailing adventure very quickly. With much effort Shannon gets Nymeria under control and we start looking for a better place to reset.
It took two tries, but we got the anchor re-set, and this time I went nuts, I had a full 90ft of chain out. Granted, we only started dragging once it hit 40Kts, and I had not enough scope out, but I was not taking any chances. We watches closely for about 30 minutes as the wind started dying back down, but the anchor was holding solid. Finally, as the wind drops back below 30kts, we shut off the engine, and try to relax a bit. But it wasn’t the same. I was on edge, checking and rechecking GPS, checking and rechecking the anchor alarm, checking and re-checking the anchor itself. After a few hours, were back below 20kts, and were still holding fine, but the damage had been done. Were stressed and doing our best to relax.
We make a wonderful pot of Jambalaya and eat dinner while watching the last of the isolated storms roll by and wonder how we missed this. We both had been looking at the weather and wind all week. Turns out we were both only looking at the big picture. The storm itself only lasted 30-40 minutes, and looking at the whole days weather it the predictions were accurate, mostly sunny and clear.
The wind continued to drop as predicted, but the nights sleep still wasn’t confident. Every new noise, every new roll of the boat would wake us up. I got up to check everything twice during the night, and overall I am not sure we slept much. In the end there wasn’t much to worry about though as the anchor held perfectly through the night. You can clearly see the arc of where the boat was on our GPS track in the morning.
Morning came around and was beautiful and clear. The wind really a perfect morning to wake up at anchor. Unfortunately the previous night had taken its toll. Instead of taking a long day to return, we slowly started prepping for the return sail. We hauled anchor around 9:45 and started our way back. This was a great sail, 10-15Kts off the beam. Remember when I said Nymeria likes 10+? She was loving life in this breeze. The trip home took just over an hour.
Once back at the dock, we cleaned up ourselves and Nymeria, opened our final bottle of champagne and settled in to try and relax. But Marina life doesn’t agree. Our friend Kevin had his power boat Hobnobbin running and was getting ready for an afternoon cruise. THe wind was calm, and the sun was out, so why not. We head back out on the bay for a power cruise. This time with a beverage at hand and someone else at the helm. Much better.
Lots of lessons leaned this weekend, and as scary as it was, were excited to do it again. Now we know more limits, and how to deal with them better. Best of all, we know we can handle it when things do go wrong.
