Hang in there... on your anchor
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 21 Jul 2013 03:20
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We got a mail today from Xanadu, a family from
Australia that is still in Panama due to rigg repair.
I loved their greeting at the end of the mail,
"hang in there".
We do really hang in there, believe me. All our 17
tons plus are hanging on the anchor and 10mm chain (10 mm thick material, not
the link). With these wind forces that are going on now you realize this
conditions is above normal.
The atholl is slowly filling up more than normal
since the horrendous waves crash by the reef and the currents coming in are
beyond what we have seen before.Coconuts, palmtrees etc are passing by us
now.
The boat moves back an forth, and the pull on the
chain is immense. I was on the bow working on the kayak (it has to be cleaned
with fresh water now and then, on the inside, otherwise the aluminium frame will
corrode to one piece), and when I heard the sound of strain by the snubbline it
occured to me that ALL stress is on the chain and the anchor now.
So if you want to sleep well and want to go on a
long trip by boat, never ever compromise on the quality of chain and
anchor.
IF our anchor or chain would brake we would sit on
a reef within 2 minutes now. The wind is so hard and it would move the boat like
nothing.
It was hard to find quality chain certified in
Europe, not that I think we are better than anybody else but there are horror
stories about chines chains giving up when they shouldnt.
The anchor we have is a ROCNA, the weight and
dimension is for a boat that is 50% heavier than we are. And yet when you look
at the pull on the chain you wonder. And I do not sleep very well at
night.
We have an anchor alarm of course, that is our
plotter that reads the GPS and if we move more than 120 feet it goes
off.
And still when I listen at night, the howling
through the rigg, screaming its way along the hull, will it hold?
We have been trough this before and will again, and
it is wonderful to be in sheltered waters now.
By the way, did I write how we anchor in water
sprinkled with coral heads? We put a fender on every ten meter, so when there is
no pull on the chain it is lifted from the bottom, looks like archs when you
snorkel on it. When the wind picks up the chain is pulled and the fenders
disappear one by one until the only one visible is your trip line by the
anchor. If that one moves we are in trouble.
Now our fenders are down under for
sure.
Today the kids have been on a Chilean boat with a 7
year old girl named Amelia, the boats name Kaueskar 2. Now Amelia is with us in
the late afternoon.
We write and paint, thats it, nothing more to tell.
Ellinor has a great idea that we should take her paintings ashore and put them
on palmtrees etc and take pictures of them. Love to do that when the wind has
slowed down and the rain is giving up.
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