Strange story about anchors
"hk" wrote in message
...
Buzzihd Beah wrote:
When I bought my boat two summers ago, it had a nice, expensive anchor
hanging on a thick, expensive rope with a plastic-covered expensive chain
on an expensive, stainless steel shackle. Two weeks later, we were
drifting along Buzzards Bay channel, and the anchor and the chain and the
shackle fell off. They just fell off, and went to the bottom, and I don't
know why. I don't even know how: the rope was OK. Anyways, I just bought
a new chip anchor and a new chip zink-plated chain. It worked for a
while. The following summer, what was the first thing I noticed when I
came back to marina one week after the boat was put back in the water? A
missing anchor. Carefully unbolted, the chain and the rope untouched.
Cheap, I mean: cheap anchor that nobody would buy but me. I couldn't find
a cheaper one, so I bought the same. It worked for a while. Now, one year
later, two weeks ago to be precise, I was again drifting along Buzzards
Bay channel, with a squid on my hook. The engine was off, and it was off
for quite a while. Suddenly, a loud metal noise... clank. Couldn't figure
where it came from, until the time came to move the boat up the channel.
The engine started OK, but there was no hydraulic power, and the volt
meter showed 12 volts. Naturally, the belt was off - but how! The water
pump shaft broke off right at the edge of its bearing... Clean crack
across the shaft, nice and fresh, not a trace of rust... Well, what do I
do? Call the tow guys. Can you anchor right there where you are, they
ask. Just sit there and wait. Sure I can. I drop my anchor, then I drop
back my hook on a line, with a squid on it, and sit, and wait. Twenty
minutes later a nice yellow boat comes to the rescue. I pull back my hook
on a line, still with the same squid on it. Then I try to pull back my
anchor. It hangs to the bottom and does not come back. I ask the captain
of the nice yellow boat to pool me over the anchor. He does. The anchor
still hangs to the bottom. He revs up his engine. My boat drags slowly,
as something the size of a whale had swallowed my anchor. I momentarily
imagine that it IS a whale, and my hand instinctively cuts the anchor
rope. So, I have no anchor again, and no chain, and now no anchor rope.
Now, I've replaced the water pump and even bought a new anchor - the same
cheap one, with a 20% discount. And a somewhat thinner rope, and all the
chain stuff. But now I wander. Can it be that my boat just doesn't like
anchors? Or maybe it wants a new anchor each year? And how to figure it
out, and what the hell should I do about it?
There's nothing unusual about losing at least one anchor a season if you
are a salt water fisherman. :)
That was helpful.
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