We've all been boat bound these last few days. Brisk SE winds of 25, gusting to 30, with a 2-3' chop from the long fetch here at the anchorage, make any dinghy rides wet and uncomfortable. A few boats dragged yesterday, but most are holding. One boat went to reanchor and found his anchor fouled on 1" chain; what that goes to is anybody's guess. His windlass wasn't powerful enough to bring it all up, so there he sits...not necessarily a bad thing, but would you want to trust that kind of anchor holding? Me neither. Another single hander arrived on a 40' Benateau. He traveled around the anchorage for about two hours and tried multiple attempts at anchoring without success. Our neighbor took his dinghy over and helped him out; turns out this guy's running around with 50' of chain and a small anchor - nope, I'm not kidding. What are some folks thinking? It was finally arranged for that boat to raft up next to a big steel fishing boat. One thing was for sure - there was no way in hell he was going to get a good anchor set with that sort of inadequate ground tackle in this anchorage. Another boat came in, a friend of ours in fact, who had to divert here because his autopilot broke and his engine heat exchanger went bonko. They had a pretty nasty ride from Suwarrow to here. So...wx progs forecast another day of strong winds (it's raining with winds 28-31 knots for the last 15 min) and then it should lay down a bit. From VHF conversations, it's evident the fleet is all getting just a bit stir crazy and are ready to get off their boats and go explore this beautiful island.
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