Cruising Close Call

Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Thought I would post my little story about our close call this summer. Just posted it on another forum under Plan "B", and since it is PNW appropriate, well time to share it here.

Been to Ganges Harbor many times over the years. Quaint, friendly, and if you're into BC Bud, well this destination is for you (never have, never will). Since the harbor opens to the south with a very, very long fetch, blows can be nasty in s southerly. Also, local boaters over the years have managed to fill the harbor with mooring balls, forcing visiting boaters to anchor further out.

This summer we had a nice sail through Swanson Channel all the way to the Ganges Harbor entrance. My old anchor spot on the east side of Ganges Harbor, now taken over by a mooring ball, caused me to find a spot over by the old fishing marina breakwater where I've never before anchored. Got a good set and settled in for the night with Patti my wife, and our oldest son and his two kids from Texas. A blow came in that night, but the boat did not move.

Saturday was farmer's market day with lots of locals coming together for food and entertainment. We dingy motored the short distance from the boat to the dock and join in the fun. The kids enjoy the play ground park. By early afternoon the wind has really picked up. I can see Belle-Vie's mast in the distance and check it periodically just to make sure she stays put.

Mid afternoon the wind has increased considerably. I just happened to glance over and see that Belle-Vie has decided to come over and join in the festivities. I tell Patti I gotta go and make a mad dash for the dinghy. These docks use wooden planks for covering and as I come up on the dinghy, my toe catches the edge of one of the planks and down I go. My son helps me up and we get to Belle-Vie just before she reaches the boulder breakwater. Engine fires right up and I make way forward in order to bring up the anchor.

My son takes the helm as I work to bring up the anchor, which is very difficult due to the wind pressure. Finally, the anchor appears and behold, wedged across between the flukes and shank is an inch and a half thick by eight foot long piece of steel cable. I figure that this cable prevented the flukes from digging in deeper as the wind piped up causing the anchor to drag. In the past our Danforth has always done good job of digging in deeper and deeper as the wind pressure increases.

Needless to say, we managed to move Belle-Vie out of harms way just in the nick of time. That was a close call and has caused me to ponder, on more than one occasion, what if?

After that close call I motored over to Ganges Harbor Marina to pick up Patti and the kids, as the marina was full, then over to well protected Annette Inlet where we enjoyed a very quiet and peaceful remainder of the day and night.
 
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Apr 22, 2011
865
Hunter 27 Pecan Grove, Oriental, NC
Enjoyed your post. You and your son will have one of those " war stories" to recount over the years.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Enjoyed your post. You and your son will have one of those " war stories" to recount over the years.
Thank you. Indeed we will. Could have been much worse, but we had a very nice time on the water.
 
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
I was waiting to read you left your toe on the dock. That must have hurt. Oh... kudos on the rescue. Mooring balls are a pain, aren't they?
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
Oct 2, 2008
3,807
Pearson/ 530 Strafford, NH
We once watched a sailor drop anchor near us and couldn't get it to set. When he pulled it up there was a lawn chair on the hook. Oh the profanity.

All U Get
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Reminds me of why I do not like to be off the boat when anchored in winds over 20 kt (and usually I am not), especially when there are rocks around the anchorage:yikes:. I typically schedule my shore excursions during the mornings when the winds are generally light here in the west. The hardest part of doing that is to get the "guests" up :snooze:and on their way to shore by 10:00 am or earlier. I know what you mean by Ganges. We were there in the late 1990's when you could anchor close to the docks at the foot of the town and easily go ashore. In 2013, the last time we visited, mooring balls seemed everywhere. A second dock, I believe, had been put in place and we had to anchor out near the fairway entering the harbor at a fairly long dink ride to the original inshore dock. Sort of ruined the ambiance of the earlier time. I recall how windy it can get in the harbor during summer afternoons.
 
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Apr 4, 2016
201
Newport 28 Richardson Marina
Reminds me of the time when anchored as a kid, my dad kept calling us wimps for not being to able to pull the anchor. When it got to the surface there was a 20lb danforth, 30' of chain and a 100' coil of rope snagged on it, someone was not very happy when thay tossed that over.
 
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Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
When it got to the surface there was a 20lb danforth, 30' of chain and a 100' coil of rope snagged on it,
Hi Ned, interesting deja vu. One of my first solo cruises on Belle-Vie was to Ganges Harbor, probably around 2002. That was before I learned much about anchoring, when we only had 30 feet of chain and no kellet. Of the three times our anchor has drug over the years two were in Ganges and one of those was this time.

So, I dropped and set (not a hard set) the anchor when things were pretty calm. Later that afternoon a strong blow comes in while I'm on the boat. A really strong blow. Wind pressure is causing the anchor to drag towards the head of the bay into three marinas. Being off season, with many empty slips, I decide to bring up the anchor and spend the night tied up to a dock; boo.

Lo and behold what comes up tangled with our 40 pound anchor is a 20 pound Danforth with 20 feet of chain, but alas, no rope. I suspect, with the piece of cable that was jammed in to the Danforth this time, that the 20 pound Danforth prevented our anchor from digging in deeper when the wind piped up. One thing that I have noticed over the years after anchoring hundreds of times, as long as the Danforth has a good set and can dig into the mud/sand deeper, it will not drag even in a very strong (40+) blow.

Later, commiserating with some local skippers over this close mishap, one old timer suggested what he referred to as a, "skipper's sleeping pill", or kellet. Returning home, I added a 20 pound lead down rigger ball to our anchoring system, which seemed to help a great deal, IMHO.
 
Oct 25, 2011
576
Island Packet IP31 Lake St. Louis, Montreal
Our old Bruce could be relied on to, at least once per year, find a rock that perfectly fit into the claw. It would obviously prevent the anchor and some of those blessed rocks were quite heavy
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
They both let you mark your anchor and if you leave the phone on the boat it will ring another phone if the boat moves outside the anchor radius.
Hi Hayden, spiffy idea. Must give that a thought. Not sure the app will work on my flip phone, Probably need to get a smart phone where I detest the thought. Not sure what phone to call as I sail solo most of the time. Worth pondering.
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
In order to get the remote ring to work you need to have two phones. one on the boat with a GPS but the other could be your flip phone. It takes very little data so you can do what I did before I got a data plan. Tracfone now has pay as you go phones with data plans. I also use BoatBeacon which gives me an AIS transceiver on my phone. http://pocketmariner.com/mobile-apps/boatbeacon/ I consider this indispensable for navigating in Puget Sound. On my last cruise, I was crossing the southern end of Rosario Strait from Lopez to Deception Pass and Boat Beacon told me that in 45 minutes I would be within 40 yards of a tug w/ tow. 43 minutes later I slowed down to let him pass.
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
I have friend who recently told me it was unnecessary to look through binoculars to see what's ahead since everything that needed to be known could be seen on the e-notebook. :doh: You guys really crack me up.:laugh: Forty-five minutes!! OMG--sound collision!!

http://www.nj2bb.org/sounds/collision-alarm.wav
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,040
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
I cry for those that would rather look at a virtual screen than the beautiful reality that is out there.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
sound collision!!
Collision sound did not work, good thing I did not need it. And what does this e-notebook cost? I cringe at the obscene cost of my flip phone in order to give me BC coverage. Besides, 45 minutes out, I can see them clearly without binocs.