|
Written by Peter A. Robson
|
 “Peter, it’s Shane, I think we’re dragging, we just passed that group of boats that was rafted near us. I’m serious. I hope you return this call in a hurry.”
My heart sank. Oh, no-no-no! Every sailor’s nightmare!
I was ashore, attending the Sea Ray rendezvous at Poets Cove in Bedwell Harbour when I checked my cell phone for messages and discovered the desperate call—made an hour earlier—from a friend I was cruising with. Shane McCune, a longtime friend and former Province newspaper columnist, was a novice sailor. The two of us were spending Labour Day weekend sailing my Catalina 27, Nesika, in the Gulf Islands. He was nervous enough about this sailing business, and now he was faced with a dragging anchor without me aboard or any knowledge about how to deal with the situation.
I returned the call immediately and was told he’d managed to get the outboard going and had thus far avoided hitting any other vessels. Then, with the help of some nearby boaters who’d spotted his plight, he’d unsuccessfully tried to reset the anchor. Darkness was falling as I raced out of the party and rowed my little dinghy as fast as I could out to the boat. Meanwhile, I was thinking, “great… PACIFIC YACHTING EDITOR TERRORIZES ANCHORAGE, DAMAGES BOATS, CRASHES INTO ROCKS.”
A short way out, I was met by a gentleman in an inflatable (whose name, unfortunately, I never got) who took the dinghy painter and towed me alongside Nesika. Meanwhile, another inflatable, operated by locals Brian De Claire and son Christian, was holding Nesika in position.
[Pullquote] “Always be prepared for dragging and have a clear action plan in mind should it occur.”
I dove on board and fired up the outboard while Shane hauled in the anchor line. What to do? I’d let out all the anchor line aboard and hadn’t gotten around to setting up a kellet system to weigh down the rode. Except for the open roadstead, the anchorage was jam-packed on this holiday weekend, and numerous boats had anchored too close to make me comfortable trying to re-anchor in the same spot. I’d heard the holding was lousy on the North Pender side of the harbour; the docks were full of Sea Rays; and, worse, it was almost dark. As I powered through the anchorage looking for a suitable place to re-anchor, Brian generously offered us use of his mooring buoy across the bay. Well, that was a no-brainer for me and a somewhat shaken Shane, so we moored to his buoy just as darkness was complete. Secure, we calmed our nerves with a large rum drink.
I’ve anchored hundreds of times over the course of my life and never dragged. The experience taught me several lessons. Lesson One: Don’t assume that once you’re anchored securely, you’ll stay that way. Lesson Two: Always be prepared for dragging and have a clear action plan in mind should it occur. Lesson Three: If a novice is left alone aboard, don’t go ashore without first making sure that person has a clear understanding of what to do should the boat drag.
Fortunately, the boating community is a generous one, and while we should never count on others to rescue us, help is generally forthcoming when things go sideways. In our case, special thanks to Brian and Christian De Claire and the other boater who came to Nesika’s aid in my absence.
|
Home 
