A Rough Night

For those of you who think our water hobo life is all sunshine and fun adventures, let me set you straight.  There is a price to pay: things break, plans go awry, and nature doesn't always co-operate.  Take last night for example.

It was our second night there, the first had been without incident.  But yesterday afternoon, a current appeared in the channel where we were anchored, probably due to the east winds blowing water towards Hvar Island through the channel.  The north winds were blowing against the current, so at anchor the forces on the boat are working against each other.  The wind blows the boat against the current, and the current pushes the boat upwind.  The hydraulic force of water will act differently on each different hull design, which means that each boat in the anchorage will lie somewhat differently in the same conditions; whereas normally, without current, they would all lie downwind at the end of the anchor chain all facing upwind.  H2OBO chose to lie beam to the wind and the other beam to the current and sail in circles around the anchor.  As a result, we re-anchored half a dozen times yesterday to get our spacing right and to get good holding on the gravel bottom (sand of course being the best).

Satisfied with our efforts, we watched a movie and went to sleep.  Around midnight, with my hobo senses tingling, I awoke to find that we had dragged our anchor when the wind swung around and intensified.  The overcast sky blocked the moonlight, so the anchorage was very dark as we weighed anchor and dropped it again.  Fortunately, there were fewer boats there after an exodus cleared the anchorage - likely due to the forecast for poor weather; otherwise, maneuvering in the dark would have been tricky.  Luckily, the anchor bit into a patch of gravel and weeds and held tight for the rest of the night, but, of course, you only know that after you have been up all night watching your position relative to shore and other boats drag and re-anchor.

With daylight, we picked up our anchor and moved to another spot that offers a sandy bottom and shelter from the winds that is just around the point from where we were.  We ask ourselves why we didn't think of that yesterday and save ourselves that rough night, but we don't come up with a good answer.

Branko