| | | When the Anchor Drags
What I had hoped would be a stress free day turned out to be everything but. The predicted Force five arrived and blew Tramontana around her anchor. She wanted to lie head to wind, but the current tried to turn her between gusts. I knew the anchor was slowly dragging on the river's silty floor. The situation became a crisis the following night when the GPS showed her on land. On deck the reality was that she was alarmingly close to the shore. Something had to be done but raising the anchor was not an option. In a Force five, I'd hit the shore the minute it let go of the mud. I decided to motor on full revs away from the river bank. Over the next half an hour I dragged the anchor slowly away from the lee shore river bank. Meanwhile the wind had lessened sufficiently to allow me to lash the rudder to turn the boat towards the opposite river bank, whilst the current kept me down stream of the anchor, engine off. So long as I was awake to reverse the rudder each time the tide changed I had a more stable situation. However, at 5 am the anchor dragged again and the boat slid right across to the other side of the river. By this stage, I'd had enough of The King's Channel and on the next high tide left, figuring that I'd be safer out at sea.
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