Scott here.

We have kept moving north!  Although, our weather, I suspect, is still better than what the Midwest USA is seeing!  We are about 76 degrees with water temps around 78 degrees. 

Jazzy let us sleep and I had to ask her if she wanted to take a walk. That doesn’t happen often since we walk her early evening before sunset and the no see-um’s come out. 

After lolly gagging around in the morning it was time to go. We went out pretty much the same way we went in, just on the other side of a big ol’ rock. Green line was coming in and the purple line was going out.

It was a little rolly as we had the wind not quite behind us, but it was only a two hour trip.

The cut in, Prime Cut, was pretty narrow. The channel was only 175’ wide. Sounds like a lot, but if you get caught in a large swell it can push you into the rocks pretty easily and quickly. We have Rita on the bow watching and letting me know if there is anything that I can’t see and should know about. I try to match the waves/swell speed to stay in a good spot while moving forward. Rita points out some movement in the water on the starboard side that indicates rocks so we make sure to avoid that area and we get past the cut!

There is one anchorage close to the cut with one boat. Plenty of room for us if necessary, as I can see three masts in the anchorage we want to go to.

I call on VHF channel 16 to see if anyone in the anchorage is listening. Superfly answers and we move to 17 to talk. She said there is actually 7 boats in the anchorage but to come in and see if there is room for us. Everything I read is that you need high tide to get in. With our 3’6″ draft it shouldn’t be a major problem, but we still timed it with high tide. We slip in very easily seeing about 6′ of water.

Rita sees a spot she likes, I am not a fan as I think it is too tight to two other boats. We move over to the right to a spot I like and Rita doesn’t like the depth and I don’t like how close we are to another boat. So, we try one more spot as you first enter.

We both like it, but there is shallows behind us. Drop the anchor and set it. Our anchor rode (the line that connects the anchor to the boat) is 25’ of chain and about 200’ of line. Not enough chain I know! But, we are making it work.

Our bridle is 25’ long. Our water depth is about 8’ and we have 2’ above the water to get to the bow roller. With 10’ from the bow roller to the bottom we should have 50’-70’ of anchorage rode out. With the wind coming 70’ or more is preferred.

I also use a Mantus snubber pendant to connect the bridle to the line. We have about 60’ of anchor rode out right now.

I didn’t attach the pendant correctly and it slipped and we ended up in the flats with only 3’ of water under us. That won’t work! When low tide comes we could be touching bottom. So, we had to pull it in and start over again and maybe do it right this time! Second time was a charm!

Once we are all set I like to dive the anchor and look at it and it all looked good.

How was the planning? Let’s see.

Plan v ACTUAL
Start at: 11:00 am ACTUAL 11:00 am
End at: 1:30 am ACTUAL 1:40 am
Total Time: 3:30 hours (2:12 travel time plus idle speed and anchoring) ACTUAL 2:40 hours
Distance: 19.9 miles ACTUAL 19.2 miles
Avg. Speed: 7.2 mph
Max Speed: 12 mph