Today was a relatively uneventful day until we anchored. We
aim to entertain and today is no exception. We started the day later than usual
because there was a thunderstorm going on when we got up. So we had a leisurely
coffee while we fashioned a new Bollard rope out of 1 inch rope. Around 8am we
started the engines and weighted the anchor. The river was mostly uninhabited
and there were no particular points of interest, however we did go through the
Pickwick lock and had to wait 2 hours to go through. Right after the lock there
were six little inlets we could anchor into. We chose the 6th one
based on width on the chart. It is called Chimney Hollow.
So here comes the lesson on anchoring. There is an art to
anchoring. You must first choose a suitable location, then you assess the depth
you are in. In order for an anchor to hold it must be at the right angle to dig
into the bottom of the lake as opposed to popping out. To maintain that angle
you need to set a specific length of rope or chain (called rode). So for an
overnight anchoring, the recommended rode is 7:1 meaning 7 times the depth of
water you are in. This is especially important if you are in a storm of high
wind situation, which we are in tonight. There is a severe thunderstorm warning
in the area we are in. The little inlet we are in is only 100 feet
wide, but it is 17 feet deep. That means we need to put out at least 119 feet
of chain or rode. Now at 17 feet deep, the pivot point becomes the water line,
so we can swing in any direction by about 102 feet. Only problem is, we only
have 50 feet on either side of us!
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Clearance to the left |
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Clearance to the right |
So we pick a spot, I drop the anchor and Jim
immediately says lift it up we do not have enough swing room. I try to get the
chain rolled back in but we are stuck. I mean stuck! Jim gave the engines some
oomph with no luck. The platform the windlass is on (that's the electric motor
that rolls up this heavy chain) is actually coming up with the effort. Jim moves
the boat from side to side, we try driving over the anchor, still no luck! The windlass
cannot bring this anchor up. Jim starts
planning how to cut this 5/8" thick chain to release us. I start thanking
god for the answer to our problem. You see if the anchor is that stuck, it
means we can shorten the chain because we are going nowhere. So we are safe here, even though we do not
have the usual length of chain out. So we shorten the chain until we have about
60 feet out (17 feet down and 43 feet to swing) and we tie off for the night.
For tonight, with the gale force winds, we are
snug as a bug in a rug. Sometimes blessings happen in the weirdest way. Now can you please all say a prayer that we
get unstuck tomorrow, because it will really be expensive if we have to cut
this chain and loose our anchor! Good Night all.
One of the cool things about following current blogs on the AGLCA website is that I can pray for people in real time...and here you are actually asking for prayer! Prayers for safety in the gale tonight and a miraculous release of the anchor tomorrow. :)
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