The Beaufort Debaucle

Explore Beaufort = check

Meet fellow cruisers = check

Spend a sleepless night at anchor because of the crazy current = check

Good weather window = check

So, we’re ready to take off for our first night passage from Beaufort to Wrightsville Beach. We plan to be under weigh by 5pm so we start prepping the boat at four o’clock and are pulling the anchors up by 4:30pm. We think – great! We are ahead of schedule and all is good.

until…

I hear the windlass (windlass is the machine the that pulls up the anchors) start to work REALLY hard and then stop.  Stephane looks back at me. I’m in the cockpit at the helm. I ask him, “Forward? Reverse?”. He says, “Just shut it off.”

Huh?

So, apparently, the day before, we managed to drop our anchor in an anchor graveyard. When pulling our anchor up, it pulled up about ten different anchors, one of which looks like it was from the 1800s…

What to do? The anchor is hopelessly wrapped up in all of the other anchors. With the help of two good samaritan boaters, some boat hooks and a lot of pushing and pulling, we are able to break free!! Not the most confidence-boosting way to start your first night passage but we forged ahead, not wanting to drop anchor in Beaufort again!!