Anchor Fishing

From Cortes I sailed to Church House.  At first I was going to explore ashore.  That changed rapidly when I saw my first bear of this trip.  I decided that a book and a glass of wine was much more fun than a couple of old houses and a collapsed church.

The next day I was going to run my first rapid.  Normally it only takes me about 15 mins to get my main up and pull my anchor up.  Since I wanted to hit the rapids right at slack before ebb I planned on an hour to get into position.  I started pulling up the anchor and after a bit it just wouldn't come. I tried winching it up and it wasn't going up. I could see the damn thing.  I was so frustrated.

I finally decided that the only way it was coming up was if I dove in and attached a separate line to the anchor.  That water is COLD.  I only had to go down 10 ft but I was shaking by the time I managed to climb back onto the boat (go, test of my ability to get back on the boat without a ladder!). Another 15 mins of winching and finally I was loose.

This is what caught me.  An old fishing net.

By the time I was loose and free the tide was running a bit more than I wanted so moved anchorages and chilled for another night