by Martyn Colebrook

Jeremy and Martyn to the rescue.

It was the recent Long Weekend which saw KaiRani, Sanctum and, latterly, Flo anchored at Chinaman’s. The plan to moor at Store was abandonded as KaiRani and Sanctum were nicely settled in, in the relatively, peaceful bay.

There were a handful of other vessels, including a 60 footish motor vessel, which some people might refer to as a stinkboat.

When the peace and quiet of a sunny afternoon is disturbed by the noise of a rattling chain it is time to observe and comment appropriately. Are they dropping the anchor with enough swinging room? Have they used enough chain? Why is that woman wearing so much make up? Have they used too much  chain? Are they raising their anchor? Those swimming trunks dont suit him. Why isn’t it lifting properly? Why is the boat rotating around the anchor? Why are they reversing backwards at speed and then going forwards? Oh dear, the anchor is caught on something.

The skipper rows to the bow to investigate the problem, then dives in.

The offer of assistance by sign language is declined. A few minutes later the skipper, having re considered, rows to Flo and asks for a lift to Clontarf to see a friend to borrow diving gear.

I suggest the use of a trip line on the anchor ‘horn’. Not sure he fully understood so I offered the use of my ‘hooker’ rather than go all the way to Clontarf. Meanwhile, Jeremy rows over, suggests the trip line trick, and being more insistent and captain like, takes the situation in hand, climbs aboard the boat and heads for the bow.

I motor to the anchor chain. Jeremy raises the anchor as much as possible, which is just below the waterline. The head of the hook has caught on massive redundant mooring buoy chain. Jeremy lowers a rope. I tie it to the redundant chain and as the anchor is lowered  it slips free.

I don’t know how the skipper thought he could free the anchor manually by diving to the sea bed, even though it was only 3 metre deep.

The solution, which we read about in the text books, albeit a bit of a variation, really does work. The skipper was thinking about abandoning the anchor, leaving a buoy to mark the spot, so he was spared a lot of trouble.

We were very kindly, but unnecessarily, rewarded with a bottle of wine each.

It felt good to have been of help to a fellow seaman (even if it wasn’t a sailboat).

Martyn Flo