Dragging the Anchor!

May 10, 2016

Latitude
Longitude

Nanaimo, BC, Canada

We were awakened when informed that our anchor had dragged during the night and we were headed toward a reef.  Well it was a very fast morning wake-up call on the S/V Our Tern.  By the time Mary and I were outside Vaughn was getting ready to deploy the dinghy.  Mary and I lowered the dinghy engine and Vaughn set it into place.  The plan was to use the dinghy to tow the sailboat.  Due to the strong winds, Mary had hailed a passing motorboat and asked for assistance.  A marine debris patrol boat came out to assist us.  They towed us back to the anchorage.  After a few more attempts at anchoring, where we came close to swinging into other boats it was decided a mooring buoy would be our best option.  Yeah! What a start to the day after the finish of the day before.  The adventure continues!

Vaughn said it is the first time the Our Tern has ever dragged an anchor.  

 

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  Mary and I stayed on the boat throughout most of the day.  We talked and relaxed.  Mary even got a short nap in.  Vaughn was busy trying to find information about boat mechanics and trying to identify what the problem was on the engine. 

Dragonboat 

In the early evening when the winds were fairly calm it was decided that we would use the dinghy to tow Our Tern to the Nanaimo Yacht Club reciprocal dock.  Mary was in the dinghy being our motor and Vaughn was at the helm.  I was in charge of dock lines.  Towing or pushing the sailboat was uneventful.  It was quite nice to have everything go as planned. 

After tying up at the dock and getting ourselves situated we had a cocktail hour.  Smoked salmon, crackers, and apples paired with a Sauvignon Blanc wine was our fare.  We then got into the dinghy and headed to the cutest little restaurant called The Dinghy Dock on Newcastle Island.  Unfortunately, they had just closed the food service at 8pm.  We then dinghyed over to the other side of the bay to the waterfront of Nanaimo to look for another restaurant.  Alas, they closed at 8pm too.  We came back to the boat and had leftover curry chicken and rice.  Another adventurous day!

My first dinghy ride of our trip!