East Lake 040916

It's freezing and very blowy out!  It appears Bob's nose is flaring

up so I think he's just a little concerned!

The anchorage we picked was good protection from the wind but

was not very well protected from the surge of the Abermarle Sound

so we decided we were going to pull up anchor and move just around

the corner...it's blowing around 25 to 30!

 While trying to bring the anchor up (my job) the winds and current just

took off on us....I had pulled the anchor almost up when all of a sudden it just

started going back out on it's own...there was even smoke coming from the

winch!  I was trying to tell Bob what was going on but we couldn't hear

each other.  It finally stopped at the end of the chain again and Bob took over.  This

lock that is bent is what I normally use to lock the chain down! Not any more!

As you can see all the chain is out and Bob takes over from here!

So now I'm driving and between the winds (once clocked at 45 mph)

and Bob replacing the lock to hold the chain we decided not to

try again and we just stayed put.

Very, very, exhausting.... 

 As a precaution Bob tied a fender to the chain in case it did break loose
or if we had to remove the chain or if it got even more rough.

We have a back up anchor (actually 3 other anchors) in our lockers
so if we should have broken loose or decided to move

then we would have come back and gotten this one....we love our
Rockna (anchor)!  It holds no matter what the conditions....
it was the chain we were worried about.  It is about time to replace it.

 

 This was anywhere from 25 - 30 mph

Our sunset....it's finally starting to calm down!

 

Boy what a day!  The spot we chose was not one of our better ones for gale force winds.  We got up to 45+ mph and the surge was just horrible.  There was no phone service most of the time, and barely internet service!

 

Once things calmed down we took a nap.  We were exhausted! 

 

We may be moving on tomorrow.  We planned on staying two days here but looking at the future forecast shows we need to get on the move before the north winds come back around.