2nd August
Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 2 Aug 2006 16:43
1800 in a fairly congested anchorage. The Lobster Festival is in full
swing here and the population has quadrupled for the week. A storm front
passed through at about 0200 and there were a couple of anxious hours as
boats swung in all directions, dragged anchors and a general air of panic
prevailed. Osprey did not drag at all which surprised me as although we
have a very heavy Bruce anchor the winds were gusting 40 knots and I would
have expected some movement. Interestingly the crew woke up too so the
storm managed to do what I have singularly failed to do on most mornings.
In the morning we had a berth arrange for 0730 when the passenger vessel
left the same berth. No sign of crew this time but when we raised the
anchor we found why we had not moved. We had captured a huge old mooring
cable on the flukes of the anchor. This took some fixing with Anish in the
dinghy passing a line around the cable ? then hoisting the cable to free
the anchor from it. Quite and interesting evolution for the crew with a
lot of weight to be managed safely ? the cable was about 2 inches diameter
and very heavy. It was successfully completed in about half an hour with
Rishi on the wheel, Anish in the dingy and John and the rest of the crew
on the foredeck working the ropes and windlass. Once free there was little
option but to leave Rishi helming to find the very narrow channel into the
harbour. He did this very successfully with only minor shouted
instructions whilst we cleaned up the mess of ropes and anchor cables on
the foredeck. He has understood quickly that slow works as it leaves room
for correction and he took us all the way up the channel to the docks
including some close encounters with a ferry and some fishing vessels.
Anish also had a great morning, as hanging off the dinghy passing ropes
around he cables and anchor was very tricky with hands and fingers always
at risk because of the boat movement. The girls also found that pulling is
more technique than muscle and worked hard. By the time we docked all were
very wide awake!