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Thursday, November 21, 2013

More chain = more sleep

We are by now catching our breath after the flurry surrounding departure.Where did 5 days just disappear?
Our first night was a lesson in anchoring procedure and why it's important not to be distracted by waiting friends.
We carefully selected our anchoring site avoiding the skull and crossbones marker we'd placed on our chartplotter from a previous encounter with the rocks that "categorically do not exist in in Koombana Bay". We know better because we found them. And (for the r ecord)not just one when we were here 2 years ago for Australia Day fireworks. The Bloke saw fireworks of an entirely different sort then!

When I have a mo I'll publish the Lat/Long for YOUR records so you don't have the same 'excitement' if you come here.

Anyway, we anchored in 4m in a light sea breeze and deployed the anchor buoy as well in case we were real rock magnets and needed help to retrieve the anchor. Job done! Beer O'Clock! We retired early feeling secure in a known anchorage. Then the wind swung and to the North which is rare enough and picked up so that the effect was quite jolly. Think chips jostling in a fryer and that was us in the bunk! Suddenly we were on a lee shore with the fetch picking up across the harbour and creating almost surfable waves to what was no longer a distant shore!
The Bloke was up in a flash and on Anchor watch! In a sleepy paralysis my mind calculated and recalculated the anchor chain multiplier. Was it enough? We have new chain and a new swivel fitting for the anchor. How would it perform? Would the locktite secure all the moving parts?- a bit nervous about high tech adhesives Vs the trusty physical mousing wire. Would the anchor buoy lift and displace the anchor if the lead was (or became) too short for the water depth now that there was a 1m chop? OMG ....was the chain enough.....enough......enough?
There is only one solution for all this alarm - put out more chain and sleep well! We had after all, just replaced 40m with 60m and the saying goes "Chain is no good in the locker"!
On Sunday we deployed more chain!
We can see where the anchor is because of the buoy and most of the time it's not in line with the boat and the wind at all which means the chain is doing a grand job and not worrying the anchor at all. Our only fear now is that the Bunbury locals might mistake the buoy for someone's crab pot buoy. It's game on down here. See a pot and raid it--- no matter that it's not yours! So just do as the locals do and adopt a 'Penguin pose' and  SMILE N' WAVE!!


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