Thursday morning I woke and was a little stiff from the sail the day before but also the boat spent most of it's time broadside to the swells due to the current. Lots of bumpy and rock 'n rolling. But nothing for an experienced voyager like myself. Getting the anchor up was no big deal except I forgot that the helm was locked midship and the was full and all those pretty rocks were coming on fast. Luckily I got to the helm in time and made a great escape.
The sail from Long ledge to the mouth of the CT river was another good one but it was getting pretty warm and humid-- I thought this was fall? The night before there were some thunder storms but far enough north that all I saw was some lightning far away and didn't think anything of it. At the the mouth of the river the current and waves were bit confused but once inside the breakwaters it was smooth as glass and with the tide bringing me up the river we made it up the river to Essex in short order.
The river is really very beautiful and has always amazed me that it didn't end up like the Thames in New London. John Lewis at Fort Rachel was kind enough to give me some great local knowledge of the river and Essex which really helped me out. Being the socialite that I am I decided to sneak up a little creek behind Nott island which is directly across from Essex. Certainly it would be an easy row over to go visit with Nancy.
Since I had made such good time and it was so warm maybe a swim was in order after the hook went down. I slowly made my way up the creek to a point were there was a smaller boat than mine; definitely time turn around. Clearly this was some poor guy trying to keep a boat ( under the wire) to avoid mooring fees etc. I also noticed that all he had was a small anchor line and probably not much on the other end of it. A concern if you're down current and weather.
I turned the boat against the the current which was still coming up river and since there was no wind putting the hook down was easy. I slowed the boat and put it neutral she slowly came to a stop. I very confidently went up and slowly let down my 22lb plow and at least 60' of 5/16"chain. All this is major overkill considering the boat is only 26' long and the depth could not have been more than 12-15 deep. With the hook down I went back aft and backed down on it to really set it in to the mud. Because it's chain and the engines so small sometimes it's hard to tell but no boggy here the weight of the chain alone would hold it.
It was really muggy and hot so I thought that maybe I'd put up the awning but decided to go for a swim first. After all hadn't I earned it by successfully navigating all the way from Niantic. The swim was wonderful because the tide was coming in I felt like I was swimming in a lake. Once done with the dip while cleaning up the boat there were two squalls that came through-- no rain but lots of wind quick short bursts. Again no problem with my gear but was concerned about the guy north of me. Luckily I had scrapped the idea of the awning because I could have had a mess on my hands. The skies cleared as quickly as it came and I settled down with a beer and the rather large decision of what to have for dinner.
Day 2, Part 2: Dinner and...
Dinner? Good question,,, maybe something simple. A can of chili is selected from the menus and heated up on the stove that never fails. After dinner I sit back on the port bunk and start my first journal entry, not something that comes easy, but there's been a couple of beers how hard could it be?
It's blowing really hard now and I've insulated myself from it in the cabin. I've noticed the boat is really starting to swing-- well to be more correct "sail" from one side of the creek to the other. I pop my head out and get a surprise-- there's whitecaps smoking down the creek. How could this be? It's really blowing but still no big deal I have chain lest we not forget.
I go back to the bunk and as I look thru the companionway I notice as we slide over to the east side I can see three trees. This goes on for while and tend to lose interest. I don't think I've experienced quite this much wind on a boat even though I'm in a really small creek. All of a sudden there's a large BANG and I have no idea what it is.
There's enough noise from the wind I figured something that came down the river after the tide had changed. That's right I thought not only is there all this wind but we've got all the water coming from Vermont trying to get to the sound, What are the chances? Wasn't I just swimming a couple of hours ago and contemplating putting up the awning? Why hadn't I take five minutes to listen to the weather? Even if I had would I have done anything like what put out second anchlor? There's barely enough room for one. It's literally blowing a gale right here in this creek. Damn it!
Then I notice as I look up--my trees aren't there when we skid to that side of the creek. Uh where my trees, my friends that are telling me where we're suppose to be each time the boat.. Then I notice were not sliding back to the otherside and we havent started heeling to other tack. I don't get it. Then the impossible hits me.
It can't be. It's to big of a thing to happen. I have trouble getting out of the bunk because the boat's over on her ear right now. She's laying down on her portside and isn't moving. I reach the companionway fly up the steps only find my worst fears. I can see the marsh grass against the transom. The rudder locked in place with the line we tie around the tiller to keeping it in place and with every blast of wind and wave charging down this stupid little creek tries to lift my next six months and throw it up on to the marsh.
And with every lift the tiller doing what it's doing the forces on the rudder are huge. It's holding the back of the boat up for that short time each wave each blast. Why won't it let up just for one minute? I move aft and look at the transom it's flexing at both places where the rudder is connected. There's no way this is going to last. Either the rudder, which is a big strong thing, is going to rip off its fittings or it will keep its fittings and sections of the transom are just just going to be pulled off the back of the boat.
I reach for the motor controls at the the all you do is hope. I start the engine thank god, put in gear and full throttle but of course the boat won't budge. The only thing I can think to do next is to try and relieve the pressure on the rudder. I untie the line holding it place and try to work the tiller. It's deep in the mud by this time and won't move. Between that and the wind and waves I grab the tiller since all is lost at this point and work it back and forth an inch this way an inch that way I'm pissed I'm so pissed second night out and I lose my boat by going aground up a creek. The rudder's moving a little more each time I jerk it back and forth. All I want go do is dig a hole with it to take some of the pressure off. It's working some but now it starts to rain and I'm in tee shirt and shorts.
I then do this weird thing and tell myself I'm not going to get wet. I go down below and it's raining on the radio so I get the boards put them place and close the hatch. All of a sudden a real big calm came over me. I thought to myself that if I was that worried about getting the radio wet, I wasn't about to give up. I was going to calm down a look at this as I would any other project.
I was at the begining and there would be an end. Plus I was going to fix this myself no help from anyone --isn't that what this thing is about anyway. It was time to go to work. I slide the hatch open and saw the sky was starting to breakup. I could see stars but it was still blowing and the creek seas were still running. I looked up into the creek and saw that the little boat that I was so worried about hitting my boat was swinging just fine where he was. I was happy for him.
Going back aft. I work the tiller some more not knowing if it is doing any good when it hit me. Take the rudder off, all I have to do is pull the cotter pins. How hard could that be? There's so much stuff aft on this boat the only way to get at the pins would be from the dinghy. I went below and got into sneakers wool socks long pants wool sweater raincoat and dinghy life jacket and the most important tool of the evening my headlamp that Sue bought for me at REI. Without it I could not have done what I needed to do.
Day 2, Part 3: The Dinghy
I now had to find the dinghy. Hopefully it wasn't on the weather side getting beat up. I'd been so wrapped up in the moment I hadn't even noticed if there even was a dinghy anymore. I looked around and found it hiding under the port quarter like some scared little kid hiding behind his mother's skirt. I don't blame it that's where I'd be.
The next step is to get the boat off the mud at any cost before the rudder really rips half the transom off. My first thought was to find the anchor, carry it out in the dinghy, set in mid channel and use the windlass to pull us off. How hard could it be? By now it's about 11:30 and the wind is still howling but not as bad and I now know that I have until high tide at 1:30. Anything after that and the tide will go screaming down the river, especially with the wind pushing it all down river and I'll lose my chance.
I climb down into the dinghy, untie it and find my way to the bow of Star. The plan is to grab the chain, follow it to the anchor, once there lift up into the dinghy and work my way back to the boat while loading the chain in so I can then row out and reset it. I grab the chain and something inside me says this may not be as easy as I thought. I start to pull the dinghy along the chain but the dinghy goes sideways to the chain and the breeze. Breeze is such a nice word. I know what I have to do and look down at the dinghy and feel sorry for it because for the next few hours it's going to get ugly.
I turn the dinghys stern to the chain and drape the chain over the transom and start pulling. The chain rides on the top edge of the fiberglass and immediately wears notches in it. I think that later these will be proud battle scars. This is really hard the chain is heavy and I haven't even gotten to the point of getting it into the dinghy. I finally reach the anchor so I hope that it isn't the chain just stuck on a log and pull with all my might which again by this point ain't much.
The anchor comes up to the transom. I get on my knees in the transom and between me and the weight of the anchor the water is pouring in. Did I mention the wind? The anchor came on board, now I had to bring all the chain in as I followed it back to the boat. Once again it had to come over the transom but the dinghy held tough and I got all in.
Being near Star all I had to do now is row the anchor out while feeding the chain over the transom as we went. Rowing against the wind would have been tough enough but with the weight of chain and anchor it was almost comical. I started rowing out, a little chain would go over and hit the bottom and I was immediately stopped. How was this going to work? All I could do was try so I rowed as hard as I could and boy that chain sure went over the transom. Talk about momentum--to stop it from all going over in a pile I slammed my foot against it which for a moment I thought might work.
I rowed. I swear I rowed like I never have before, and right in the middle of it all I start thinking Golf. They don't do stuff like this they don't even go out in the rain. And on top of it all they got that Hager double-knit pant thing going on. I could deal with that. My foot slips and all the chain runs away from me. I'm sitting there exhausted with an anchor but a pile of chain underneath the dinghy.
This isn't going to work. I row the anchor back to the boat trying to pull the chain as we go. Back at the boat I climb on board to find the tiller at a sickening angle as if it were a broken arm, you know like the one in Deliverence. Either the rudder finally ripped out of the transom and the boat was filling with river water or it slipped out of its fittings. I really didn't want to go look but had to.
I leaned over the transom and saw that it had slipped its fittings. Yea rah! Half the battle was now over. The boat's not broken, there's still hope. I tied a line around the top pintle and led it around all the stuff forward to a winch. I then took the tiller which was jammed and was keeping the rudder from sinking and pushed it through the stainless bars at the same time taking a chunk of the tiller with it. It sunk a far as it could considering the depth and I brought it around to the side of the boat with the winch. I then took the mainsheet, undid it at the traveler and connected it to the upper pintle. Raising as high as I could get it I new it would be safe while I worked on getting the boat out of the mud no sweat!
Day 2, Part 4: A Tale of Two Anchors
I knew now I needed to put out another anchor but with a rope rode that I could handle. I got out the big danforth that came with the boat and the rode that I used with the plow. Only problem was I didn't have a big enough shackle to join the two together. But then I remembered that there was a small danforth and rode that the past owner must of used as a lunch hook not big enough to help tonight but maybe it had the shackle we needed.
It was buried under everything, some of this stuff I didn't know existed. Getting down to it I finally found that it had a small section of chain connected to it. The chain had been painted white by some very patient sole. And at the end of that chain was a huge shackle that could of held the Queen Mary. Just what I needed.
I joined the two, connected the bitter end to the bow and carefully coiled down the rode. What I didn't need right now was 150 feet of old dried warp to turn into a rats nest. I got the rode and anchor into the dinghy set it up so it would flake out as I rowed out. I started to row out against the wind and waves which by this time had gone down some but it was still going to be quite a chore. By now it was about 12:30 and was really getting quite tuckered out.
All I could was row out as best I could but the wind had veered more into the west and kept me pinned along the shore. At this point I didn't care, I was making progress away from the boat and the rode was running out smoothly though as more ran out it was getting harder to row.
As looked back at Star I noticed that the rode was creating this really beautiful curve from her to me. I figured if I was thinking about that kind of stuff things must be looking up. I finally came to the end of my rode and dropped the anchor being careful not to tangle it up. Rowing back to the boat I was anxious to see if this was going to work.
I was about at high tide-- let's hope the stars are aligned(no pun intended). Climbing up from the dinghy on the leeward side around the tiller and rudder I went forward and brought the rode aft to a cockpit winch took four wraps put in the handle, took a deep breath cause I new this wasn't going to be easy and started to grind. Within three full turns of the handle Star slipped off the mud and into deeper water as if she were on rollers. How anticlimactic. That's ok I'll take it.
I still had to move her out into the creek more. Even though she was floating she was still being blown in to close to the shore and now with the tide going out it was crucial to get her out there. I knew I wasn't going to be able to use the plow and chain and I couldn't motor out without a rudder so I decided to set up the plow with the length of chain that I used to use with the old warp which was about 30' a manageable amount. I had a brand new warp I on board still in the box all I had to do was cut thru link that would leave me with the thirty feet and join the new warp to it. I took out the vise I brought and my hack saw and went to work. What? You say you don't carry your own vise onboard (smartass). I cut thru the link and went to join the two together and had to steal the second shackle from the the small anchor.
Now, all I had to do was very carefully uncoil the line in a counter clockwise way so the the 200' of line wouldn't get tangle and knot up. Anybody who has done this knows exactly what happens no matter how careful you are. One hour later I have the plow anchor out with the full length of 30' of chain and 200' of untangled 1/2" rode into the center of the creek. I pull her out on that and rides very nicely in the creek were she should be. It's about 2:30 I go down below and crash into my bunk. But wait there's more! Remember the bang?.........
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