No shortage of entertainment here. It’s almost lunch time and I haven’t even opened a book on a day too blustery and threatening to consider going ashore.
The annual Hampton Roads region marine law enforcement conference and practice session that took over the Public Piers shortly after my arrival was out doing on the water drills this morning.
I went up to watch just in time to see this practice target boat dragging its anchor briskly towards me. The boat sent out to retrieve it wasn’t too concerned because it was going to miss me by a couple of boat lengths.
They didn’t know that I have chain running out to each side instead of straight ahead until they got close enough for me to call over and point. It looked like they were going to drag right over my starboard chain. Sure enough, the boat stopped exactly where I feared and I told them they probably had hooked my chain. However, they pulled up the little Danforth anchor and it had somehow missed.
They decided to come alongside the derelict target boat, about 60 feet away, between it and Strider. They have good procedures, no power can be applied to the engines until it is verified that all lines are secured on cleats and nobody is holding one that could drag their hands and cause injury. Before they could get squared away, the towing frame you can see at the stern of the boat in this picture was about to start grinding into my topsides.
I then got to participate and contribute by standing on the bow and shoving on the frame several times with my foot to keep separating the boats until all stations had reported clear for power application. They got the boat out of there with a good six feet of clearance between the port prop and my anchor rode. Practice is always good. I was glad I had put a kellet on the junction between the chain and pendant just before this drama started.
Here’s another picture of the boat after the re-anchored it. You can see one of the fireboats spraying water in the background of this one.
The show’s over now. Everyone is heading in for lunch. The wind has eased. Maybe I’ll take a look at the radar and do the same thing.
Later: I decided to have lunch on the boat, salmon cake (can of Trader Joe's wild canned salmon mixed with bread crumbs and an egg fried with shrimp sauce and hot sauce on top).
Since I'm now riding with just the Fortress anchor dead in the direction of the strongest winds predicted for tonight, I decided to deploy my main anchor. The Fortress has held me in 40+ knots in the very good bottom of Cape May but I want to sleep well tonight. I tied a 100 foot line on the rode to my "mooring", led it through a snatch block on the midships cleat, and back to the jib winch. I dropped back to the end of that and motored around the radius, keeping light tension on it, out into the channel. I then dropped the main anchor, set it, and pulled my self back to the "mooring" pendant. I'll now be riding on those two anchors in a V. They held me in 50+ knot winds just about a year ago in the Alligator River.
I could have pulled up the now useless Guardian but it will be a big evolution better undertaken in calm and sunshine. Besides, the uniforms are getting ready to go out again and I want to be settled in one spot. My wisdom was confirmed when the rain started just as I slid the companionway slide closed and settled down for a lazy afternoon.
The annual Hampton Roads region marine law enforcement conference and practice session that took over the Public Piers shortly after my arrival was out doing on the water drills this morning.
I went up to watch just in time to see this practice target boat dragging its anchor briskly towards me. The boat sent out to retrieve it wasn’t too concerned because it was going to miss me by a couple of boat lengths.
They didn’t know that I have chain running out to each side instead of straight ahead until they got close enough for me to call over and point. It looked like they were going to drag right over my starboard chain. Sure enough, the boat stopped exactly where I feared and I told them they probably had hooked my chain. However, they pulled up the little Danforth anchor and it had somehow missed.
They decided to come alongside the derelict target boat, about 60 feet away, between it and Strider. They have good procedures, no power can be applied to the engines until it is verified that all lines are secured on cleats and nobody is holding one that could drag their hands and cause injury. Before they could get squared away, the towing frame you can see at the stern of the boat in this picture was about to start grinding into my topsides.
I then got to participate and contribute by standing on the bow and shoving on the frame several times with my foot to keep separating the boats until all stations had reported clear for power application. They got the boat out of there with a good six feet of clearance between the port prop and my anchor rode. Practice is always good. I was glad I had put a kellet on the junction between the chain and pendant just before this drama started.
Here’s another picture of the boat after the re-anchored it. You can see one of the fireboats spraying water in the background of this one.
The show’s over now. Everyone is heading in for lunch. The wind has eased. Maybe I’ll take a look at the radar and do the same thing.
Later: I decided to have lunch on the boat, salmon cake (can of Trader Joe's wild canned salmon mixed with bread crumbs and an egg fried with shrimp sauce and hot sauce on top).
Since I'm now riding with just the Fortress anchor dead in the direction of the strongest winds predicted for tonight, I decided to deploy my main anchor. The Fortress has held me in 40+ knots in the very good bottom of Cape May but I want to sleep well tonight. I tied a 100 foot line on the rode to my "mooring", led it through a snatch block on the midships cleat, and back to the jib winch. I dropped back to the end of that and motored around the radius, keeping light tension on it, out into the channel. I then dropped the main anchor, set it, and pulled my self back to the "mooring" pendant. I'll now be riding on those two anchors in a V. They held me in 50+ knot winds just about a year ago in the Alligator River.
I could have pulled up the now useless Guardian but it will be a big evolution better undertaken in calm and sunshine. Besides, the uniforms are getting ready to go out again and I want to be settled in one spot. My wisdom was confirmed when the rain started just as I slid the companionway slide closed and settled down for a lazy afternoon.
