Day 44: Friday, October 19, 2012

Underway: 6:55 am      Motor Off: 12:33 pm      Miles Traveled: 34      Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First treasure from the deep – found a nice large Delta anchor and chain in Sumpter Cove.

Mile 304 to Mile 270: We got up early today to try to beat the forecast 20 mph winds and were able to anchor by 12:30 pm. We anchored in a small cove at Sumpter Landing next to a quiet park. Another sailboat was anchored here too but we never saw anyone come back to the boat. (From the looks of it, the boat seems to have been sitting here for a while). After a couple tries, the anchor held (we thought) but the wind, even in this small protected bay, kept swinging us in a 180˚ arch all afternoon. After we dragged a little too close to shore, we decided to pull up the anchors and reset but were surprised when we pulled up the stern anchor to have hooked a heavy piece of galvanized chain. After pulling about 25 feet of expensive chain up, we found a large, very expensive galvanized Delta anchor – perfect for a future boat (maybe) or worth about $250 on Ebay. We just added 80 pounds to our already overloaded little boat but it may come in handy someday. (We had to pay our dues though since the mud on the anchor made a mess in the cockpit so we spent an hour cleaning the decks – well worth it though).

We were able to have a relaxing and productive afternoon since we anchored so early. Cindy fixed our jib bag by sewing on a new lifting tab and dried out her cushions and I sanded and put two coats of varnish on some of our exterior teak. We even had time to read after having leftovers for dinner and crashed fairly early so we could get an early start again tomorrow.