Why are
charter boats able to be licensed with such inadequate ground tackle ? The
equipment supplied is fine for a lunch stop but totally inadequate when required to be deployed in earnest.
We were heading up to Kithnos from Seriphos on an old Ocean Star 56 when the starboard cap
shroud parted. We sent a picture to the
charter company who were confident the
mast would hold up - we were not so sure
So we set about nursing the
boat back up to the charter base in Alimos, motoring at 3 knots with a tiny bit of main set to steady the boat in lumpy seas and 40 knots of wind. By the time we had made the crossing to the mainland it was 9 p.m. and we were already very tired. The prospect of another 25 miles and entering the marina in the darkness of the early hours in a F9 with no assistance did not appeal, so I looked at the chart for some refuge for the night.
There were 2 cats and a mono at Palea Fokea and they looked pretty snug for the night despite the wind shrieking through the cove from the north west. We took down the sprayhood to reduce windage and deployed the undersize
CQR and every link of chain in the locker. The anemometer showed 53 knots and the wind howled derision at our puny ground tackle as we dragged and reset, dragged and reset, dragged and reset etc. The cove has a rocky lee shore to the south and the cats were both anchored close in, so it was only the mono that we had to avoid and we managed to stay out of his way and did not foul his chain as the drag and reset process went on through the night. The wind gradually abated to the mid 30s and we were able to get some respite when the anchor finally held around 3.30 a.m.
Before I get pilloried for endangering another vessel or scouring the sea
bed, we stayed to leeward of the anchored mono so we were dragging away from him and toward the lee shore, as uncomfortable as it was. Any potential damage to the sea
bed is regrettable and while my thinking may have been clouded by exhaustion, it felt like we were in a survival situation from the vessel's perspective.
All this drama could have been avoided by the outlay for a suitably sized, modern anchor with high holding power - and a re-rig after 10-15 years would have been helpful