Anchor and Bug Bites

December 10 – Kyra woke with a hankering for muffins.  She set to baking strawberry muffins.  They were delicious, but the problem was the oven warms up the boat so much.  The sun was already high in the sky “cooking” us and she was running the oven making us even hotter.  I overheated and got a headache, so I laid down.  While I was resting Dave gave the salty deck a quick lick-n-promise wash down.  He found a unique screw on the deck and couldn’t immediately place its use or origin but knew it was for something.  He began to investigate only to discover it was the screw that holds in the pin for the anchor to attach to the chain.  Holy cow!

Our anchor may be off the chain.  He immediately jumped in the water to dive on the anchor.  The water was so murky he couldn’t see but 1-2 feet in front of him, plus with the swells, he was being pushed about and having a hard time following the chain down, even though it was in shallow water.  He tried to tie a small fender to the chain to mark it but got himself wound up in the rope under the surface, just barely getting free to come up for air.  I didn’t even know all this was going on, though he claims the girls knew he was in the water and watching him. (I feel a new protocol coming on.)

He quickly donned scuba gear and plopped back in to find the anchor.  The good news was he found the anchor and it was attached to the chain with the pin still in, luckily and thank heavens!  The bad news was without its screw to hold the pin in, it could easily fall right out, and he feared hauling it up, the giggling of the chain through the windlass the pin might fall out and we’d lose the anchor in the muddy bottom.  We were so fortunate it didn’t fall out during the two anchorings the night before.  Not to mention, with the mucky, muddy, silty bottom, there would’ve been no way to find the anchor had it detached from the chain.

He decided to put locktight on the screw, go back down and attach it to the pin to hold the pin in place, all underwater.   We all rejoiced when he explained the situation and I let out a sigh of relief.  I cannot believe how fortunate we were. The screw must’ve worked itself loose on the ride down as it bobbed up and down with the crashing waves.  We are thankful for:  the screw being on deck and found, the pin still in place, not losing the anchor during the bumpy ride down in deep water, not losing the anchor in shallow mucky water, not losing the pin, and being able to put it all back together underwater.

With all this commotion and because the boat seemed extra hot, we had it open all day.  We failed to realize that we needed to close her up at dusk to avoid being inundated with bugs.  The biting mosquito-like bugs descended upon us and gobbled us up. They were so small we couldn’t see them, but we could feel their aftermath.  Little tiny bites all over our legs, ankles and feet.  You know who got it the worst – yep, Camille!  Her legs looked like she had chicken pox.  We all were scratching fiends.

4 Replies to “Anchor and Bug Bites”

  1. Thank goodness Dave was able to untangle himself and get air. How scary. I know Kyra is a mighty fine baker but maymr have to hold off on baking for awhile.

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