Tuesday 19 July. St Helens pool. 100 m !?

As you will know by now , if you’ve been reading, this is an unsanitised version of events on this trip.

It was actually a quiet and peaceful night. Until about 0700 hrs. The events of yesterday had tired us and when we heard thunder and lightning and torrential rain, it felt good to be in a cosy bed listening to the weather outside. It was light of course but no sunshine. I’m not sure what or when it exactly happened, but the next minute there was a shout. I looked out of the window into the rainswept sea and saw someone on a boat in their wet weather coat and neon yellow hood. For a split second I thought nothing of it until J shot out of bed at the same time as the anchor alarm went crazy. Those heart sinking words “ Sue we’re dragging “ ! I threw on some shorts my boots and my down jacket. Normally wearing contacts, I grabbed my specs. Up on deck all mayhem. We’d come alongside another yacht which had been to the starboard side of us. The young couple on board were trying to fend us off them. Grabbing a fender I tried to help and think no damage was done, though at one point our anchor chain was up under the oar of their dinghy and it was a miracle that somehow it freed itself without breaking anything . Once we’d separated the boats and we appeared to have come to a rest, the anchor reset itself. The wind was still strong but moderating. Because of the issue we’d had yesterday, we had of course used a trip buoy! ( Angie👌) …. but this was now stuck under our neighbors boat ☹️. It appeared that our anchor chains may have crossed and become entwined. The thought of having to call Lewis out twice in the same 24 hours was appalling 😣. The other boat didn’t have an electric windlass so were ratcheting up their anchor in order to free themselves ( hopefully) from us . They were in front of us so it was more sensible to do that even though that may seem unfair. Eventually they brought up our yellow trip buoy which thankfully wasn’t wrapped round anyone’s propeller. They were only a young couple and the lady was in her pyjamas. An overriding memory is that although they could have been very cross about it, they just laughed and said it was all part of the adventure! Wonderful them . We let everyone settle down and then we re anchored further into the pool. We had noticed another green boat dragging at the same as us, the problem being weed. In fact all the anchors we could see throughout the day, are just covered in huge swathes of thick strap like kelp, and stringy weed. Julian found the best way to get rid of it was to cut it off with the bread knife. Goes without saying….. you can’t reset you anchor until all the weed is cleared. The problem with weed is it’s very strong and if anchored on it, it can give you the impression that you are more secure than you really are. Our problem last night was that we set the anchor into wind, but the wind changed 180 degrees, so when it is strong enough, can trip the anchor.

The rest of the day passed smoothly. Tim who had been asleep through all this rowed over and had a coffee and a chat. We didn’t feel like leaving the boat so we just did stuff on board. The weather is a bit iffy and not that hot…. completely opposite from the rest of the country which is experiencing hottest temperatures ever. The wind is coming and going. Boats are coming and going but we are at least staying here tonight. Set our anchor light and went to bed.

What we learned today…. we discussed this at length, and think the only thing we could have done differently was to have anticipated the front going through…. thunder , lightening and rain, might have caused a problem and that we should have been on deck at that time, monitoring things..,. The second thing would to have put even more chain out. But then the number of boats around and swinging room becomes an issue………🤔

Sue x

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•