What a drag!

Yesterday it took three tries to get the hook set in West Bay on New Providence Island.  Reports told of poor holding here, with a thin layer of sand over a hard bottom.  The one spot with “good” sand was already taken, so we had to work with it.  I dove on it—not great, but the point was in.  And we faired well overnight, with alarms set.

Late this morning there were some good 18-20kt gusts and we started to drag.  We quickly retrieved our ground tackle and moved to a spot another boat had recently departed from.  We set again, good on the first try this time.  I love our anchor—a 45lb Manson Supreme—and we had 10:1 chain out with nice, long snubbers to handle the gusts.  I dove on it at this new spot and can’t say that it looked all that much better than it had before.  We waited, watched, and a few hours later Frank backed down on it at 2600rpm in the middle of a gust.  We didn’t move!  Final dive revealed that while not perfect, much more of the anchor was dug in.  We know it’s not fabulous, but winds are forecast to drop and we will keep that alarm on.  Just two more nights and we move to a dock!

My view of the boss while I head to “work.”

Meh.

Me!  I’m really getting some soak time at this anchorage...

The crew MVP is actually the GoPro!  It’s so nice to be able to swim down, take photos and video, then bring it back for Frank to review so it’s not just my take on each situation.  I’m keeping that baby charged up!