We've lost our anchor dragging virginity!
We nearly lost the boat on Friday night. We spent 4 hours - 1am till 5am - standing on the road in Muo, in the pissing down rain, near freezing temperatures, on our way home from a night out, watching Monty B at anchor being absolutely battered by one of the most horrendous storms I've ever seen.
She was heeling so much at times that she looked like she'd go over. The water was white with gusts of wind nearing force 9. Just terrible. We stood and watched, aghast, unable to do anything as there was no way we could reach her in the tender. At some point, our mate Dan turned up on his way home from Kotor so we spent some of the time sheltering in the car, just watching, waiting, worrying, praying for it to stop.
Then the worst happened and she dragged her anchor, moving along the shore and getting closer to it with every gust. No idea how long for, time stood still, I was hysterical, crying and yelling, there was nothing we could do. I had to drag Tim away from the tender with all my strength, screaming at each other, as he wanted to go out to her but would have been killed. We dragged about 200 metres in all and ended up 10 metres from shore. Just as I was contemplating swimming, but realised I couldn't get on board anyway, and began planning what we would do when she grounded, plus ringing everyone boaty that we knew to come and help us, the wind suddenly dropped - it was like someone flicked a switch. We ran to the tender, jumped in (she was filled up like a kid's paddling pool), the outboard wouldn't work (how typical!), Tim desperately yanking on the ripcord whilst I held onto Dan's hand as hard as I could to stop us being whisked out into the bay. We gave up trying and just paddled like crazy to the boat, got the engine on, took an hour to haul anchor as the voltage on our battery was well down then reanchored just as the sky was showing signs of light. Moments later, the wind veered 180 degrees and started howling from the other direction. It was about 1 degree c, we were soaked to the skin from spending 4 hours in driving rain (me in a mini dress and boots) and frozen to the core.
Spent the next few hours under damp blankets, dropping in and out of sleep. The wind dropped around 9am so we went home to save our poor dogs who' d been in for 14 hours alone and hadn't even pissed anywhere. They are so good! We got changed, checked the forecast, it was shit, so we took the dogs to Jason's then back on the boat until darkness fell and the wind dropped. Then home to a pizza and bed by 9pm. Exhausted. Yesterday, we moved the boat onto the quay in Kotor, she is now trussed up like a turkey and hopefully, safe. Money is no longer an issue - we have to keep her safe.
She was heeling so much at times that she looked like she'd go over. The water was white with gusts of wind nearing force 9. Just terrible. We stood and watched, aghast, unable to do anything as there was no way we could reach her in the tender. At some point, our mate Dan turned up on his way home from Kotor so we spent some of the time sheltering in the car, just watching, waiting, worrying, praying for it to stop.
Then the worst happened and she dragged her anchor, moving along the shore and getting closer to it with every gust. No idea how long for, time stood still, I was hysterical, crying and yelling, there was nothing we could do. I had to drag Tim away from the tender with all my strength, screaming at each other, as he wanted to go out to her but would have been killed. We dragged about 200 metres in all and ended up 10 metres from shore. Just as I was contemplating swimming, but realised I couldn't get on board anyway, and began planning what we would do when she grounded, plus ringing everyone boaty that we knew to come and help us, the wind suddenly dropped - it was like someone flicked a switch. We ran to the tender, jumped in (she was filled up like a kid's paddling pool), the outboard wouldn't work (how typical!), Tim desperately yanking on the ripcord whilst I held onto Dan's hand as hard as I could to stop us being whisked out into the bay. We gave up trying and just paddled like crazy to the boat, got the engine on, took an hour to haul anchor as the voltage on our battery was well down then reanchored just as the sky was showing signs of light. Moments later, the wind veered 180 degrees and started howling from the other direction. It was about 1 degree c, we were soaked to the skin from spending 4 hours in driving rain (me in a mini dress and boots) and frozen to the core.
Spent the next few hours under damp blankets, dropping in and out of sleep. The wind dropped around 9am so we went home to save our poor dogs who' d been in for 14 hours alone and hadn't even pissed anywhere. They are so good! We got changed, checked the forecast, it was shit, so we took the dogs to Jason's then back on the boat until darkness fell and the wind dropped. Then home to a pizza and bed by 9pm. Exhausted. Yesterday, we moved the boat onto the quay in Kotor, she is now trussed up like a turkey and hopefully, safe. Money is no longer an issue - we have to keep her safe.
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