.... and it was me!!
We headed out to anchor on the west side of Alcatraz this morning and found that more boats than normal had beat us out there. We got our anchor set and immediately the boat was covered in what I call kelp flies. They were everywhere.
After a little while, we decided they must be coming from the island so we upped anchor and moved further away. The flie problem got better, but there were still a lot of them.
We were anchored up next to a nice sailboat and soon a tollycraft came up and anchored virtually on top of them. After some conversation, they moved away slightly but didn't have nearly as much rode out as the other nearby boats.
Soon the tide changed and boats began swinging. We found ourselves now swinging down on the Tollycraft. I suggested they let out additional rode to back away a bit. They let out a little but I could see their red chain and they didn't appear to have anymore. It was a little too close for comfort so we pulled our anchor and moved again, and this is where it got weird.
I moved up between a couple of other boats and on the same heading and dropped our anchor intending to fall back behind them. As we were drifting back I suddenly realized that the boat on our port side also had a stern anchor out so he wasn't swing with the rest of the crowd. Within moments we were very close and I sucked his stern anchor rode into our port prop.
They were really irritated and let us know that we were the second boat to drift into them. He immediately cut his anchor rode and we thought we were good. I tried to move forward to get our anchor up, but I couldn't seem to get away from them. We finally were able to retrieve our bow anchor while constyantly maneouvering to stay off their boat. When we triued to leave the area, I discovered that their anchor was still holding and it was wrapped tightly on my prop.
We shut the port engine down and I was able to hook the rode with a boat hook. MY wife backed us up enough so that we could cut the anchor away from our boat. We slowly limped our way out of the crowd on one engine and made it back to the yacht club we are visiting. We spent about an hour diving to try and cut the rode away, but we didn't really have a proper knife, so here I am at home picking up a couple of sharp serrated knives for tomorrow morning.
I did have the pleasure of talking with Phil of Vessel Assist who offered to have one of his divers take care of the problem. However, corporate Vessel Assist won't pick up the cost of a diver unless it prevents you from being towed. Since we were at the dock, the diver would be on us. Tomorrow morning, this diver, me, will take care of the problem.
It's been a long day! To LLoyd in the Arima who we entangled with, you have my sincere apology and I'll contact you next week to see about replacing your ground tackle.
We headed out to anchor on the west side of Alcatraz this morning and found that more boats than normal had beat us out there. We got our anchor set and immediately the boat was covered in what I call kelp flies. They were everywhere.
After a little while, we decided they must be coming from the island so we upped anchor and moved further away. The flie problem got better, but there were still a lot of them.
We were anchored up next to a nice sailboat and soon a tollycraft came up and anchored virtually on top of them. After some conversation, they moved away slightly but didn't have nearly as much rode out as the other nearby boats.
Soon the tide changed and boats began swinging. We found ourselves now swinging down on the Tollycraft. I suggested they let out additional rode to back away a bit. They let out a little but I could see their red chain and they didn't appear to have anymore. It was a little too close for comfort so we pulled our anchor and moved again, and this is where it got weird.
I moved up between a couple of other boats and on the same heading and dropped our anchor intending to fall back behind them. As we were drifting back I suddenly realized that the boat on our port side also had a stern anchor out so he wasn't swing with the rest of the crowd. Within moments we were very close and I sucked his stern anchor rode into our port prop.
They were really irritated and let us know that we were the second boat to drift into them. He immediately cut his anchor rode and we thought we were good. I tried to move forward to get our anchor up, but I couldn't seem to get away from them. We finally were able to retrieve our bow anchor while constyantly maneouvering to stay off their boat. When we triued to leave the area, I discovered that their anchor was still holding and it was wrapped tightly on my prop.
We shut the port engine down and I was able to hook the rode with a boat hook. MY wife backed us up enough so that we could cut the anchor away from our boat. We slowly limped our way out of the crowd on one engine and made it back to the yacht club we are visiting. We spent about an hour diving to try and cut the rode away, but we didn't really have a proper knife, so here I am at home picking up a couple of sharp serrated knives for tomorrow morning.
I did have the pleasure of talking with Phil of Vessel Assist who offered to have one of his divers take care of the problem. However, corporate Vessel Assist won't pick up the cost of a diver unless it prevents you from being towed. Since we were at the dock, the diver would be on us. Tomorrow morning, this diver, me, will take care of the problem.
It's been a long day! To LLoyd in the Arima who we entangled with, you have my sincere apology and I'll contact you next week to see about replacing your ground tackle.