Friday, July 29, 2016 Waddington Bay

We are sorry we didn’t leave yesterday.  The anchor held yesterday so we were a little cocky in believing it would continue.  Fred took a nap and I was in the cockpit reading.  The wind was still roaring through at 15-25 kts.  Since this kept the boat heading into the wind, it was quite comfortable in the cockpit.  When Fred got up he thought a large rock at the entrance looked a little closer than it had.  Apparently some gusts of 30-37 kts pulled the anchor loose.  OK, all hands on deck!  We started the engines and I stayed at the helm while Fred handled the winch and anchor.  Waddington is a large bay but there were already about ten boats in there.  Our choices of a new spot were limited.  Normally re-anchoring is not a big deal.  However, with the wind and current in the anchorage actually causing whitecaps this was an ordeal.  I had a terrible time getting the boat in a good position.  In the middle of these maneuvers the port transmission control lever went slack.  !@#$  I hailed the other boats in the anchorage of our plight. Several folks came up to us in their dinghy’s but there really wasn’t anything to do.  I never worked so hard in my life keeping us off the rocks with only the starboard engine and high winds.  I still don’t know how we came out of this unscathed.  When Fred saw what was happening he ran into the engine room to see what was wrong with the transmission.  It looked good.  Of all the times for this to happen, Fred took a wrench and tightened the port transmission control and then it worked fine.  We re-anchored very nearly where we were before.  This was not our intent but the wind and tide had more control than I did.  We had a very anxious afternoon and night but the anchor held.