I want to start this blog with a big thank you to Sherrie,
Randy and Brenda and any and all others who sent us their prayers and positive vibes today.
It was a frustrating day but we got the anchor up!
We started out the day with a leisurely coffee while we
discussed our options. We were directly underneath the centre of the storm so there was not much else to do. When the
storm finally passed around noon, Jim went out with the dinghy. He got the line
off our boom which has a lead weight on it. He tied this around the chain and let
it drop to the bottom of the anchor and started pulling on it with the dinghy
motor at ½ throttle.
He ended up going around in circles and the anchor did not
budge.
After an hour of this, he gave up and came back in. We decided since the
dinghy was down anyways, why not go explore. It was too windy to try and get
the boat turned around to pull from the other side. So we went into a couple of
bays around the area. The bay we were in, has a marina, but nothing in it.
So
we went up the very steep stairs and after
I stopped to catch my breath, went up more stairs.
At the top of the stairs
there was a steep hill. See Jim all the way up there.
There are a whole bunch
of lots for sale, but not a single house. There was room for at least 60 boats
but the only boat there was a pontoon. Obviously someone spent a lot of money
and time building this, but apparently not too many are coming! It was a lovely
walk, and the view from the top was spectacular. We certainly got our exercise.
I took a few pictures of odd looking trees
clinging to life as the erosion is threatening their existence; some
interesting caves. I find nature so fascinating. One tree was literally growing horizontally for the first few feet, I
am assuming seeking daylight.
When we returned to the boat Jim tried one more time with
the dinghy to no avail. In fact he could no longer bring up the line he was
using to pull the anchor. Apparently it got stuck too. We had called for a
diver to come tomorrow am, so he just tied off the end of the rope to the chain
so it would not dangle in the water to foul someone's prop. We figured the
diver could retrieve this one too. So we put the dinghy away and I started
getting stuff out for dinner. Jim then
noticed that the boat was completely turned around, 180◦ and it was suddenly
very calm. We had been in 12 to 16 mph most of the day. He said, hey it's so calm,
do you want to try this one more time from behind the anchor. He started
lifting the anchor and this rope he was using got very tight and impeded his ability to bring the chain up; so he untied it thinking it would sink anyway.
Once he did this, the anchor came right up with no problem whatssoever. What
helped we will never know, but I must tell you there was an awful lot of
celebrating going on. So we went a whole 5 miles to Grand harbor to get fuel
and tie to a dock! Thanks again all, and
have a wonderful night.
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