Current Position: 33°
52' 26" N 78° 34' 12"
W
As I look out over the sun sparkling off the water I wish I
felt well enough to go out and enjoy it. Day two started extra early – try
1:00AM. We set the anchor yesterday and
felt that we got a good set. We have two
anchor alarms and set both of them. We
had a fair bit of wind but got to sleep without too much difficult despite the
noises of the night – waves slapping the bow, wind generator spinning in the
wind, wind noises in general (you’d be surprised how many noises a boat can
make). AND THEN! First one alarm and then the other go off at 1 AM. Bob heads to the deck to check our position.
I get dressed ready to go out and reset the anchor. Everything looks fine! Our neighbor boats don’t seem to be any
closer, we are still a safe distance from the shore…hmmm. We reset the alarms to a larger radius and go
back to bed. Just as we start to drift
off, the alarms go off again! Again,
everything looks fine. Bob is content
and goes back to bed, I’m a worry wort and fret about it, walk around the boat,
study the charts. The alarms go off
again! Bob turns off the one alarm but I
leave my phone app alarm on. Back to bed
he goes while I search the internet for answers. Finally, at 3:00 I find the answer – I don’t
understand it but our radius needed to be much larger – it’s a geometry problem
that is more complex than one would suspect.
I set my alarm for the larger radius and go back to bed but still
keeping an eye on the alarm, which true to form went off AGAIN around 4. We checked our position and again were
assured we were fine. I finally dropped
off to sleep around 5. Bob was up at 7
to shower and, blessing that he is, turned on the generator to warm up the boat
for me to get dressed. Quick breakfast
and ready the boat for the next segment – more about that later – start the
engines – oops! No starboard (right)
engine! Nothing! Nada! Out come the
manuals for Bob to scour and my phone to send a message to our mechanic, Jason.
Before Jason got back to us, Bob found a loose post on the Solenoid. He had the dickens of a time reaching it as
it is on the far side of the engine against the bulkhead but he did it! The engine kicked right over. So proud of him. By this time it was 11:30 and we had a long
day ahead of us to get to our next anchorage so the First Mate (me) made the
request that we stay over one more day.
I’m used to the swing of the boat now and the “boat” noises, I trust our
anchor, and feel that I will be much better after a good night’s sleep.
We
spent a quiet afternoon. Reading,
stitching, looking out at the birds, napping, planning, and writing.
We have done so much reading to prepare for this adventure
but that doesn’t prevent all the lessons the come only from actual experience. The
words of many that have gone before us ring in our ears – it will get better
and it IS worth it J.
Blessings on all my readers as you too look for the rewards in
your struggles.
It was a beautiful day even if was cold and windy. Here is our only neighbor tonight.
The sunset was disappointing but it cast a glow on the trees making it look like a fall day.
Gail, nice job working through the issues and staying calm. I love your blog posts. Thanks for writing regularly.
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