Northport
Apparently, I have anchor anxiety! I’m not used to being able to see the bottom where we put down the anchor. I am really afraid of hitting bottom. When I’m standing on the bow ready to lower the anchor and can see the bottom – it looks like its about 4 feet deep. We draw 4’6″. Harold is calm at the wheel monitoring the depth and easing us into shore, I’m ready to hit the button and put the anchor down. I wait, and wait, I look back we are still motoring ahead, I wait some more and more. Now I’m looking back urgently, I think we should drop anchor. But I wait for the signal. When it finally comes I am so relieved. Down goes the anchor, I can see it land, I let out some chain, hook on the preventer, and we back down. I pray it bites into the bottom and catches firmly. I dread having to bring it up and start again – but no one wants to drag. That is a nightmare scenario. We wait and watch, we swing, we settle. We are satisfied we’ll stay put. There is much rejoicing.
I realize I’m more stressed about anchoring than I’ve ever been out sailing. You’d think it would be the other way around. When we are sailing, we are attentive to wind and wave, sails, charts, and traffic. We have control over our course and can quickly respond to surprise events. When at anchor, we’ve put our faith into the anchor and our ground tackle, have done our best to make sure it’s set and we become less concerned with the state of our boat. It is still, we are no longer operating or navigating the water. We even leave it floating while we go to shore. When we return, we are relieved to see it right where we left it awaiting our return.
