2019: Anchor woes on way to Georgia

1 November 2019
Depart: Church Creek Anchorage 11:05
Arrive: Port Royal Landing Marina, Beaufort, SC 4:30
Distance: 44 nm

Sunrise at Church Creek Anchorage
("Home Too" in the distance)

Morning mist on the water --
water temp = 70; air temp = 46

When we dropped our anchors last night, the windlass on "Home Too" decided to act up. Knowing there might be issues this morning and that we needed to get to Beaufort before 5:00 to get our prescriptions, we got up before the sun to get ready to depart.

Yesterday, we were hot wearing a t-shirt and shorts. What a change a day can make! The storm we had last night brought in a cold front. The temperature this morning was 46 degrees! The front that came through brought bolt lightening within a mile of where we anchored. After the lightening storm passed through, we got a wind storm. Clark measured the wind speed at 35 knots. The sound of the wind made me hope that a tornado was not coming through the area. Today, we bundled up against the cold.

At 8:00, we got ready to pull in our anchor to be underway. Sadly, we got a call from Franklin to say his anchor line was trapped under his boat. As he talked to us on the phone, he pulled on the line and got an ugly surprise - the line came up severed with no anchor attached. He said, "The anchor is gone."

Clark realized that "Home Too" was not drifting, so he figured the anchor was still attached to the boat. The question was where!  Another clue that something was not quite right, and the anchor was still attached somewhere, was that the boat was facing backwards into the current. Feeling around under the boat, near the props, with a boat hook, Franklin found the anchor line but was unable on his own to pull it up to cleat it off. A wicked current held the line taut.

Clark and I discussed the options for him to go visiting "Home Too" to see if he could help - kayak, dinghy, or "Sunset Delight". Deciding on the fastest option, Clark and I launched my green kayak, and Clark paddled over to see what could be done to help.

With Clark's help, Franklin managed to get the anchor rode tied off to a stern cleat. Now at least the boat was anchored via a cleat instead of via the props! Once they took the strain off the line, they tried rotating the port and starboard props by hand from inside the hull. The starboard prop rotated freely. The port prop could be rotated some distance one way or the other but not all the way around. Not good!

We thought it might become necessary for Clark to go for an early morning swim to dive under the boat. Since they had no luck loosening the line from inside, Clark came back to "Sunset Delight" to put on a wet suit.

Clark returning in kayak from helping to find "Home Too"s anchor line.

Bundled up for the cold chill in the air.

Once Clark was back on board "Sunset Delight", we had the same discussion as earlier ... go over in kayak, dinghy, or "Sunset Delight". Since he had no idea what situation he would find under the boat, he decided to move "Sunset Delight" close enough to "Home Too" that he could get back for tools, knives, etc. more readily as needed.

To get SD over there, we pulled up anchor, backed towards "Home Too", and when we thought we would sit in the right place once the anchor line was let out, Clark dropped the anchor. We assessed the situation and decided we needed a do over. On the repeat performance, we landed closer but still too far away to get easy access to "Home Too".

Tight on the anchor and fighting wind and current, the boat sat at right angles to the anchor line as Clark hard reversed his way towards "Home Too".  When we got close enough that I could throw a line, I heaved it as hard as I could and watched the line miss its destination and go into the water. I had to pull it back in, but now it was far too wet and heavy to throw back for a second try.

I quickly grabbed my nearest, dry line as Clark revved the engines to give me another chance at getting a line to Franklin. This time he caught it. I directed him to tie it to a mid-ship cleat, and we almost lost it again as he tried to position it as requested. Clark heard me say, "Franklin has the line, so he came down." When I started yelling, "Reverse, Clark, reverse!!!" He ran back to the helm to backup the boat. Franklin managed to hold the line and get a cleat hitch in place. Yay!!

Clark wanted more than the one line attached (the black line in the photo below) to "Home Too", so he took our extra-long, white line and tied it to our starboard mid-ships cleat. Then, he climbed up on the gunwale at the stern with the intent of heaving the other end over to Franklin. Problem was, perched up there on the gunwale, he had no swing room for his pitching arm to get some momentum going.

Deciding to stand on the starboard-most point and use his left arm, he aimed in the direction of the black line, so if it missed, it might at least land over the line and be able to be pulled in. Good throw! Good catch! Franklin tied the line to his stern cleat, and we were as close to ready to proceed as we were going to get.

As close as we could get backing to "Home Too"
and tossing lines over while fighting wind and current

Franklin and Cathy joking around, yelling "Oh no! Not the blog!"

Once we had the boats positioned, Clark donned his wet suit to go for a swim. He measured the water temperature at around 70 degrees, so even though the air temperature was around 45 degrees, he decided to wear his "shorty" suit. It is easier to get in and out of, and he felt it would be sufficient. I gave him our sharpest knife as we figured it would be likely to be necessary to do the job at hand.

Looking at the current flowing rapidly by out boats, Clark decided that he needed a "safety net". He tied a fender to a line and dropped it overboard. That way if the current swept him away, he would have something to swim for to help him get back on board. He tied our already wet black line (the one that went in the water on my first throw) to the fender and then tied the other end of that line onto the white line connecting the two boats as shown in the picture below. When he jumped off "Sunset Delight" into the water, he had hold of the line to ferry himself across the water to "Home Too".

Clark in wet suit arriving at "Home Too" to save the day!

I stood on "Sunset Delight" too far away to see the action on the port side of "Home Too". I could only guess what Clark was doing and how he was faring. Every once in a while, Cathy could yell over an update on progress. The first report was not good news. "Line around the prop shaft. Lots of it." I knew it would be a long time for Clark in the water and worried about hypothermia setting in.

Ev's view of the action ...
Clark in the water working on the anchor line with
Franklin and Cathy on deck to watch and assist.

When Clark got under the boat, he found an ugly situation. The line was wrapped around the prop multiple times and cinched so tightly that they had no option but to cut the line to give Clark slack with which to work so he could remove the wrapped line. Clark held the two ends of the line while Franklin sawed in the middle.

Since Clark was free diving, i.e. no air tank, he returned to the surface repeatedly for air and then dove back under to unwrap more line. He says he has no idea how many times he dove under the boat to continue working. Clark told me that he found tons of wraps. To make the matter worse, visibility was next to nil. Clark said he had to have his face up close to the prop and shaft to see anything at all.

On one trip back to the surface, he told Franklin that he had found a monkey fist knot that needed to be removed. As he unraveled the mess, he found that the line was snagged on the prop cutter. All told, when the line was finally removed from the props, Franklin figured he lost about 60 feet of his anchor line. Not all of that was wrapped around the shaft, but a good portion of it was.

Once Clark had all the line removed from the prop and shaft, he swam back to "Sunset Delight" for a quick rinse, dry, and re-dress to go back and figure out how to retrieve the anchor. Fully dressed in clothes appropriate for the temperature, he climbed back into the kayak and returned to "Home Too".

The first action we took upon his return to "Home Too" was to "cut me free" and let "Sunset Delight" settle into place on anchor instead of being pulled at a convoluted angle by the lines. Clark released the black line, and I quickly pulled it in. However, when he tried to release the white line, we found the tension too tight for him to untie the bowline. I released on my end and told him to bring the line back in the kayak when he came. He pulled it in on his side and then "Sunset Delight" and I floated away!

I ran for the binoculars, so I could spy on the action. I could see Clark working with Franklin and Cathy to pull in the anchor line. As I watched, I noticed that the kayak, tied to the swim platform, got in the way of the work. At one point, I winced as I heard the chain being dragged across my kayak. I wondered how much plastic would be worn away by the time 50-feet of chain was dragged over its side.

Shortly thereafter, I saw Clark walking the chain along the side of "Home Too", so he could bring it and the anchor, up by the windlass and retrieve the anchor at the bow where it belonged. It was still a hand-over-hand operation, but at least he could put the chain in the locker. Finally, he had all the line, chain, and anchor on board. "Home Too" was once again free-floating!

Clark pulling up what remained of anchor rode and chain - by hand!

Besides "Home Too" ending up with a severed anchor rode, we too suffered a casualty of this incident. Note in the above picture the kayak is upside down behind "Home Too". The very sad part of that situation, besides my poor kayak being poorly abused, is that Clark had placed our extra long line (one of the two that held our boat to theirs) in the kayak to bring back to our boat. When the kayak flipped, the weight of the line caused the strap on the kayak to give way and our line ended up at the bottom of the anchorage - never to be seen by us again! Since it is an often-used line, we needed to get a replacement asap!

Speculation on how the boat got itself into this anchor-line mess included several factors - an 8 foot tide change in the anchorage, a wicked 2-knot current, a storm with 35 knot winds howling, or perhaps too much line out at low tide. "Home Too" has prop tunnels, and Clark observed that the line snagged there. That might not have been too bad of a situation, but once the props were engaged, causing the line to wrap around the prop and shaft, it was all over.

Having spent 3 hours untangling "Home Too" from the anchorage, we were concerned we would not make our destination marina before their 5 o'clock closing time. Clark pushed the throttle a little further up than usual to get as much speed as possible without burning too many extra gallons of fuel. With some luck and a few spots with favorable current, we made Beaufort a little after 4:00 and were docked at Port Royal Landing Marina before their specified 5:00 closing time.

Classic Wooden Boat at dock in Beaufort area

Ladies Island Bridge Beaufort, SC

We selected Port Royal Landing Marina due to its proximity to a CVS and a grocery store. Having arrived so many hours later than anticipated, we had to hurry to make use of the little remaining daylight to do our shopping. Once docked, we grabbed bikes and rapidly peddled to CVS and then Piggly Wiggly. We finished shopping in record time. Still, the sun was dropping fast as we exited Piggly Wiggly, so it was a fast peddle back to SD to cook and eat dinner on board.

As we traveled to Port Royal Landing Marina, Franklin and Cathy searched for a person they needed to do repair work on the severed anchor line as well as a store where a replacement line could be purchased for "Sunset Delight". Because of the 8-strand line used on "Home Too", a specially-skilled craftsman is required to splice the line to the anchor chain. Numerous phone calls were made with the same, "Sorry, I don't know anyone who does that." response.

After dinner, thinking he might be called upon to do the anchor-line splicing himself, Clark watched a YouTube video. He knows how to and has spliced 3-strand line, but 8-strand is quite different. As he watched the video, Franklin came over to talk to him about travel and repair plans for tomorrow. As they talked, I worked on a blog update. The time passed quickly, and suddenly I realized that it was well past midnight. I posted my blog entry and went to bed. What a long day!


2 November 2019
Depart: Port Royal Landing Marina, Beaufort, SC 10:20
Arrive: Morning Star Bahia Bleu Marina, near Savannah, GA 3:10
Distance: 37 nm

Yesterday, during his research, Franklin successfully found a boat supply store near the Port Royal Landing marina that could supply us with replacement line for our boat-line that was lost. Since Clark planned on working on "Home Too's" anchor line, I got volunteered to bicycle over to the boat store to buy the replacement line. Biking the 1.5-mile distance to the store would not be a problem. However, I wondered how I would manage the 1.5-mile trip back with 50+ feet of 3/4" line on my back.

At 7:30, Clark left with his bag of tricks, including my set of crochet hooks, to see if he could do the line splicing. I went to get ready for my "fun" bike ride. Before I could leave, Clark returned and said, thankfully, that Franklin had found someone who could do the splicing and meet us at Thunderbolt Marina. With that problem out of the way, Clark went with me to buy the replacement line. Phew! I dodged that bullet!

We biked to the "Beaufort Boat and Dock Supply" store. A woman there cut the requested line for us. She asked if we wanted a box to carry it in, and I said, "No, just put it in here please." I then zipped Clark's backpack and said, "Quick, Clark, slip out while she's not looking, so we don't have to pay!" She laughed and walked with us to the counter where we did indeed pay for our new line.

On the bike ride back to the boat, we passed a place called "Bed and Biscuit" for doggy daycare. I thought I took a picture, but it is nowhere to be found on my phone. Mystery! Peddling back to the boat, I was extremely happy that Clark had the line on his back. We had the wind in our faces, and I found peddling hard enough without the added weight.

When we returned to the marina, Clark found we had a new problem. The target marina, where we planned to meet the person to splice the anchor line, had no vacancy for tonight. Clark took off at a run to talk to Franklin and figure out what to do next. Fortunately, Clark made a phone call to Morning Star Marina, and they were able to accommodate us. Phew! Bullet dodged!

Since we did not get away until 11:00 and we had to meet the line splicer at the marina, Clark once again pushed the throttle up a ways to make time. On route, we passed the usual SC scenery with two separate locations of dredging equipment ready to continue work come Monday.

Clark had "Home Too" dock first because they needed to get repairs done. No sooner did "Home Too" get docked in her slip than the splicer boarded her to commence work on the anchor line.

Walt Suter of "Sailor's Nautical Services"
Savannah, GA

Starting the splice job

Finished splicing

Final, wrapped splice

By the time Walt finished the job, the sun had gotten quite low on the horizon. The splicing may have been completed, but anchoring work was far from done. Besides the severed-anchor-line episode, the windlass on "Home Too" has been shutting down unexpectedly. Clark stood by while Walt finished his work, so he could learn about the 8-strand craft process, but also so he could dive into the anchor locker to investigate the windlass failures as soon as Walt finished his work.

To begin the windlass work, the anchor chain and line had to be removed from the anchor locker and placed on the deck. Then, Clark stuck his head far into the anchor-line locker to examine and trace the windlass wiring. Although Franklin had been told otherwise by the manufacturer, Clark insisted that a portion of the windlass hardware was housed separately, inside the boat. They found what they were looking for under the bed in the master stateroom.

They speculated that the failure was caused by a heat sensor shutting the winch down. Clark wanted to hook up some wires that could bypass the heat sensor and then "run the heck out of the windlass" in order to see what would happen on failure. He had no direct access in the stateroom to the necessary wires to perform this experiment. Instead, he came up with the idea of sticking straight pins through the wires he could reach in the anchor locker and attaching clip leads to the pins. Fortunately, I had straight pins in my sewing box on our boat.

Unfortunately, to do this, Clark had to lean way into the anchor locker with a head lamp on his head and stretch to reach the wires he needed. Then, holding a pin with a pair of pliers, insert one into each of the two equally-difficult-to-reach wires. After the pins and clip leads were in place, all four of us worked together to run the windlass and bring the rode and chain back into the locker without knocking the clip leads off the pins.

Clark ran the windlass. Franklin applied counter force to the line so it could be pulled in by the windlass, and Ev and Cathy fed the line and chain to Franklin. Once we got everything fed into the locker, Clark ran the anchor in and out several times.  Of course, the windlass refused to fail.

With the experiment complete, albeit inconclusively,  Clark went back into the stateroom to clean up and put things back in order. He decided it would be a good idea to clean the contacts and in the process decided to take a look at the fuse. The next request we heard from him, "Do you have a spring out of a ball-point pen? I need half of one to hold the fuse in place." I said to Cathy, "He reminds me of McGyver! What's he going to ask for next?"

Clark noticed when he pulled out the fuse that it did not have "cups" on the ends holding it in place, as per usual, to make a good connection. Instead, he found a crimp connection with nothing to hold the fuse in place other than the rubber of the fuse holder. He decided to try an experiment whereby Cathy got called into action.

Cathy operated the switch and let the team know when the light came on and when it went off. Clark pulled on the ends of the fuse holder, and Cathy yelled, "It's off!" Clark pushed the two ends together, and Cathy yelled, "It's on!" This proved to be an easily repeatable failure. Clearly the fuse holder alone was insufficient to keep the fuse making contact. He decided that perhaps a small spring would solve the problem, thus the request for the pen spring.

Cathy found him a pen to take apart. He inserted the spring in the fuse holder and declared that he was 99% sure that he had found the root cause of the winch shutdown issue. With this declaration, we all said hooray and called for Lyft to give us a ride to a restaurant in Savannah for dinner out. Franklin and Cathy treated us at "The Chart House" where Clark and I had great trout dinners.

It was well after 10:00 before we got back to the boat from the restaurant, and I was more than ready for bed. I took a book with me intending to read a few minutes, but as soon as I laid down, I knew I was fooling myself. It was lights out and immediately asleep for me.

3 November 2019
Depart: Morning Star Marina 8:05
Arrive: South River Anchorage in Wolf Island National Wildlife area 4:05
Distance: 60 nm

We changed to Eastern Standard Time overnight. Clark said that we needed to "pretend" it did not happen. Where we would have left at 9:00, we now had to leave at the new 9:00, i.e. 8:00 a.m. Instead of getting up at 7:00, we had to get up at 6:00. So much for "an extra hour of sleep"!

Before we could leave the marina, Clark had one more windlass-related job to do. He scheduled to meet up with Franklin at 7:30 to remove the straight pins he put through the windlass wiring yesterday and coat the wires with liquid tape to keep corrosion out. He managed to complete this task and have us off the dock only 5 minutes later than planned.

Sunrise at Morning Star Marina

Sea gulls, sea gulls, sea gulls! Geez!

Georgia Marshes

Fred Junior?

Fred the Third?

Clark was tired last night and picked a target anchorage with less care and consideration than usual. As we traveled today, he realized that his choice would appear far too soon, and we worked together as we rode along looking for another option. I realized when I saw that anchoring was our only option for the night why Clark was insistent on addressing all of "Home Too's" windlass and anchor problems before we left Savannah.

We found a few and finally settled on one recommended in the ICW Mile-by-mile Planning Guide we received at the Hampton Snowbird Rendezvous. The book is proving to be very useful for planning as well as for my blog writing.

We let "Home Too" pick their spot and anchor first. As they set their anchor, the boat was at an angle to the anchor line due to current versus wind. At some point their boat went over the anchor line, and we thought, "Oh no, here we go again!" Thankfully all came out well. When we dropped our anchor, we had the same thing happen to us. Clark quickly let out extra line so we wouldn't snag. Because of the depth and the 8-foot tide change we have out about 200 feet of anchor line and chain.

This is a great anchorage with a beautiful sunset.

Sunset at South River Anchorage

We have the large anchorage to ourselves. It is peaceful and quiet with stars and a half moon to brighten the sky. It doesn't get much better than this.

We feel like we are in the middle of nowhere. Even so, we somehow have cell service and digital television. Not surprising, we could not find any WiFi in the wilderness. Fingers crossed that all goes well with the windlass on "Home Too" in the morning.