Woke up this morning to find that the wind had increased to a steady force 7 directly offshore into our
anchorage, that is the lower end of Gale force. There is not much wave action which is good although the
odd swell does sweep in from the Atlantic.
Spent the day doing ship work that included splicing and whipping a couple of lines. Some “sailorizing”
stuff that :-)
In the morning the Alexandre Humbolt steamed in and anchored as well as another freighter making a
total of 2 tall ships, and 3 freighters in the anchorage. The wind has been steadily pushing us back so we
have both anchors out and a lot of chain to go with them. Leaving this anchorage on Monday will be a
real workout!
About mid afternoon I came up from my splicing to see that the new freighter had been dragging her
anchor and was now about a ship length away from the Humbolt. Apparently the Humbolt radioed her and
said “you are dragging” to which they responded “no we aren’t” !?!
The freighter shortly thereafter fired up their engine, hoisted anchor and steamed ahead back to where
they were before and dropped anchor again. It appears two hours later that they are still dragging but
much slower now.
We appear to be holding OK although we are “plowing” a bit downwind at the moment, but we are on
notice that all hands may be required sometime during the night if conditions change.
Tomorrow I should be able to go ashore again so hopefully I can find some way to send this so you can
read it in a bit more timely manner.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
P.S. It is now 8:30 in the evening and the wind has moderated a bit but is still near gale force. Deb came
down a few minutes ago and mentioned that both the Humbolt and the dragging freighter have up
anchored and headed for sea. I can see the lights of the freighter she seems to be standing off and on just
off shore but there is no sign of the Humbolt.
On the plus side I used John’s cellphone to call the mysterious Internet provider and now have a place to
go to get access when I get ashore (if I get ashore) in the morning.
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2015 Postscript
Here are two pictures showing how far that freighter had dragged her anchors and drifted down towards the Alexandre Humbolt!
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