Anchors Aweigh

We attached our new anchor yesterday. It took an epic road trip with Steve, Bob and Judy to the West Maine store. This part of Hampton was nothing like the quiet village atmosphere we were expecting from the anchorage guide. Six lane highway, underpass and overpass. So glad we were not driving.

The new anchor is a Manson. Nothing against the two large CQRs we already have but we have never felt the same way about CQRs since Paihia. When Freya was about six we promised her ice cream and decided to do some shopping. The chart said that the anchoring was not great - sandy bottom. So we anchored carefully and waited for half an hour just to check, this with an impatient 6 year old. The trip ashore was successfully completed and we returned to the dinghy laden with packages. Where was "Mink"? There she was but looking much further out. The poor 2.5hp Yamaha motor was cranked up to max power as we chased our rapidly retreating yacht. She drifted across the main channel and started heading to the rocks on the other side. Just as we started to despair that we wouldn't catch the boat, she stopped. The anchor had finally caught just enough for us to catch up and board. Not long after our second anchoring disaster we brought a new Sarca anchor which was amazing. In January we rode out a 65 knot storm on anchor and didn't move, so very happy to welcome our new piece of hardware.


 
Today we visited Hampton Roads. Great history and the Virginian Space Museum. Well worth a visit. Lots of fun interactive displays. The Captain received the best score on the Lunar Module landing but I won the paper plane contest. They also had the re entry capsule from Apollo 12. The outer coating was almost completely burned away and there were still charred sections from the re entry heat. The gap between success and failure is so small.