Back to normal, we’re at anchor. Nicely. A little pile of dirty laundry in front of the machine. Using the alcohol Trangia stove to make morning coffee (rather than the hotplate), generally enjoying the autonomous life. Ah. Nice.
Yesterday, it was very VERY windy. So windy that three boats of the 8 or so around us dragged anchor. Two of the three had owners aboard and they quickly reset their anchors. The third, a brand new 40′ powerboat, had anchored just in front and to the side of us and then the owners took off in their Hobie kayaks to have lunch at a nearby yacht club. On the way by, the guy gave us his cel phone number and jokingly said “call if she drags.” David and I looked at each other, incredulous. We KNEW the boat was going to drag; the wind was up and we’d watched the man anchor. He had not put nearly enough line out to assure good holding. As typical of so many powerboaters, they anchor and immediately leave without even bothering to find out if they’re well-anchored. His behavior really wasn’t unusual.
We sat, enjoying the sunshine, wondering how long it would be before it happened. 15 minutes. I could tell the boat was dragging. Since it was also “sailing” at anchor (swinging widely side to side), it appeared that it would conveniently swing towards Mahdee on the way by and somewhere along Mahdee’s accessible length (54′ of deck and 11′ of bowsprit) we’d likely be able to nab the boat, cushioning with a fender and raft up with it. A gentle swing this way and that, the boat crabbed slowly down towards us. I called the guy’s cell phone and got voice mail. I left a message, “your boat’s dragging; not moving fast, but headed towards two boats behind us–I’d get here quick if I were you.”
We didn’t want to launch our dingy platform or dingy (since we do that on the starboard side) simply to be crushed by the powerboat. We waited.
David stood slightly forward of midships on Mahdee with a large fender in hand. Just when it looked like the next swing would bring the powerboat right along our starboard side (as expected), the powerboat turned sideways to the wind and started a seriously fast crab past us towards the other side of the anchorage. David dropped the fender and quickly put down our dingy platform and I frantically pumped more air into Tinker on deck (we store the dingy slightly de-flated). We launched the Tinker within a minute of the boat dragging by us but already the powerboat was almost upon two sailboats rafted together behind us. The sailboat owners saw the large powerboat coming and stood ready to fend off. The powerboat rode crossed the sailboat rode and watching from Mahdee’s deck, I could envision a “ball” of three boats twirling through the anchorage. Luckily, they didn’t tangle and the powerboat was drifting past the raft-up alone. Getting to the powerboat, David tied Tinker to the stern and ran forward to let out more anchor rode. Immediately, the powerboat anchor caught and held. The boat now sailed at anchor 30 feet behind the rafted up sailboats. I couldn’t tell if the anchor was actually holding but it seemed to be. Thank goodness.
Along about this time the powerboat owner showed up in another power boat and his female partner showed up in one of the Hobie kayaks. Neither would approach the hunting powerboat. I thought David was going to have to take Tinker and shuttle the owner back to his boat, but the little boat the owner was aboard finally got up the nerve to come close enough for the owner to step into Tinker and then from Tinker to his boat. Ten minutes later, David was back on Mahdee and we watched the two other boats drag anchor and shook our heads about silly power boaters not putting out enough scope.
