Things going bump in the night scare us as children. When we grow up we condition ourselves that the scary stuff is all in your head. Maybe not …
A few nights ago a motor launch came and anchored quite close upstream of us. Early the next morning he floated past us dragging his anchor. The next night he anchored down stream of us. In the middle of the night the tide changed and at 5.30 in the morning there was a strange noise. I went on deck to find the launch hard up against the bow on one side of Imagine and his dinghy on the other. The launch being powered forward then backward to pull his dinghy free, dislodged our anchor. Now we were both drifting towards another anchored boat. Eventually the dinghy ripped its mounting off the back deck of the launch and we were free of them both.
Sue at the helm and Andrew controlling our anchor, we got Imagine under control metres away from the anchored boat and returned to our spot and re-anchored. The launch retrieved his dinghy and went back to his spot and anchored.
A little later after making sure we were secure I inspected the damage. A 1.5m scrape about 10mm deep along the side of us.
I went across to the launch to get some details and discuss what to do. During that time I asked him how much chain he had out the first time he dragged. 30m was his reply. So I asked him how much he had out last night. 30m he said. Curious I asked how much he has now put out. 30m he said.
If you do the same thing over and over again you get the same result over and over again. That is what we are all taught, well not all of us.
Anyway we came to a cash settlement for the repairs to Imagine. That night we we didn’t get much sleep. I went out on deck every hour. and guess what? He dragged anchor! He didn’t hit us this time but he did leave the area.
