sailing casita

I was going to be starting a full time job at the beginning of June so we planned our Delta trip for May, a little earlier in the year than we would have otherwise chosen. We departed Alameda on May 20th, we motored down the estuary and then sailed into the lee of Angel Island. From there we motored to China Camp in San Pablo Bay and dropped anchor in 9 ft at low tide. It is more of a roadstead than an anchorage with no protection except from the west. We were only able to get to about 1/2 mile from shore and we felt very exposed. It was a beautiful sunny day and pretty calm but the forecast for the next day was for 30 knots. The night was pretty restless with the current switching directions and at times opposing the wind.

The following morning we raised the anchor at 6am and headed toward Carquinez Strait. By 12:30 we were anchored in Middle Slough (near Pittsburg). The winds were blowing 20 to 25 kt from the west with gusts to 30 kt, we had anchored to the east of Brown’s Island but it is mostly just swamp and reeds so not much protection from the wind. To keep from swinging into the reeds with the current we had a stern anchor out. There wasn’t much current but we figured that if the winds died it could push us into the weeds.

As it happens we had anchored during the flood current, when it switched to the ebb it was much stronger (makes sense, ebb tide + river current = strong current). We had to get up several times in the night to adjust the stern anchor road to minimize chafe so we didn’t sleep very well. At about 4am we both heard a noise that we had never heard before but sounded suspiciously like an anchor dragging! We both shot out of bed and rushed up on deck, sure enough we had drug and now instead of being perpendicular to the shore we were parallel and about 10 feet from the edge of the reeds. It was barely getting light but we weren’t going to get any more rest so we prepared to raise the anchors. This is where it gets tricky, lots of books and guides will tell you how set two anchors (usually bow and stern but there are lots of variations), but rarely do they tell you much about retrieving them. Fortunately the winds had finally died off so that wasn’t an issue but the current was really ripping through the slough. We couldn’t figure any way of getting both the bow and stern anchors up without risking either being swung into shore or catching the stern anchor rode in the prop so we decided to tie a fender to the stern anchor rode and abandon it for the time being. Once that was done we attempted to retrieve the bow anchor by motoring up to it still parallel to the shore. I couldn’t get it to budge with the windlass and even when Devon tried it wouldn’t break free. Then Devon had the brilliant idea to let the boat drift back and then drive around, dragging the chain along the bottom, and approach the anchor at an angle perpendicular to the shore (the way we had set it). He figured we must have snagged the chain on something when we dragged and might be ablt to unsnag it by dragging the chain back closer to it’s original orientation. It worked and we were able to break the anchor free this time. Devon held us in place in the current while I got the chain and anchor back on deck. Then we turned our attention to the stern anchor. I got a boat hook and attempted to snag the fender and line while Devon let us drift past, keeping the transmission in neutral so the line wouldn’t foul the prop. It took two tries but I was able to catch the line and eventually managed to get the stern anchor up on deck. At 6am we motored out of Middle Slough and turned up the San Joaquin headed for Potato Slough.

Addendum added 2022

Reading back over the section about dragging our anchor we realize that we totally overreacted. It was only our stern anchor that drug, our bow anchor never budged. The current was holding us parallel to the shore and it would have taken an east wind (which was not forecast) to blow us into the reeds along the shore. We should have at least let it get fully light, maybe have some coffee and breakfast, before jumping into action. But all’s well that ends well!