I was meeting up with a bunch of other sailors at an anchorage I had been to only once before, many of whom I had never met in person but knew through online forums like this. We got into the anchorage at a decent hour, and I followed my GPS to the exact spot I had anchored the year before, which is just at the edge of the navigable water with a marsh nearby. In preperation for this trip I had more than doubled the amount of chain on the anchor as I knew this anchorage had a soft bottom.
I was at the helm, Jen was on the bow dropping the anchor. The first try the anchor didn't set, second try it set, backed down on it and it seemed to be holding firm. We hopped in the dinghy and went over to one of the other boats and started in on the cocktails as it was beer:30, and we had no intention of leaving till morning. We end up down below on the other boat for about an hour swapping stories and having a great time, only to come back up topsides to see that the wind had shifted 180 degrees. Thinking nothing of it we continued to enjoy the afternoon and good company.
An hour or so later we decide to run back to the boat to pick something up, and hear the anchor drag alarm as we approach. We quickly realize that she had drug about 100 ft, and the keel and rudder are now stuck in the mud. When the anchor set, it must have been snagged on a log or something, because after the wind shift it definitly did not reset. So much for the extra chain I added! I checked the tide and it was about 1.5ft from low tide, and while there was no chance of moving the boat until the tide came back in, we were not yet listing so I figured with the soft bottom there was nothing to worry about. We went back and continued to watch from the other boat as the tide kept going out, and my boat started to list to port farther and farther, and just before it hit low tide, she was listing almost 45 degrees! Everyone was laughing about it, not in a mean spirited way, but I still felt pretty embarresed.
We ran back to the boat as the tide came back in and she was almost completly upright again and I pulled in the anchor, only to find that there was half the scope I had told Jen to let out. It was that moment that I learned that she is no good at estimating rhode length, and I need to paint marks every 10ft for her...
We worked her out of the mud before the wind could blow her farther into the shallows, and proceeded over to an unused mooring where we stayed for the rest of the night.
Since I don't want her to be afraid of anchoring I have not told her the real reason we ended up aground was her letting out 25 ft of scope in 10ft of water, I just told her it was because the bottom was too soft for my anchor (which is partly true). I also didn't say anything to the other guys we were hanging out with, because I didn't want her to overhear and find out, so they all think my anchor simply drug. I know at least one of those people is on this board, so if you read this, look for my rhode measurement marks the next time you see me at an anchorage, and don't mention to Jen that it was her fault!
