STUCK

Tuesday, February 17th – STUCK! We are securely stuck at anchor. We were up by 7:00 with plans to motor out of the bay to head north 52 nm to Punta Ipala. Though often a marginal anchorage with rolling seas, cruisers do use it in order to be in position for an early morning departure to get around Cabo Corrientes before the winds hit. The Captain is delighted to see The First Mate dressed, on deck, at the helm with the engine running and ready to go. Being hooked on some boulder down below is not part of his plans. For well over an hour, we twist and turn Avante in a circle pulling at various angles hoping to free the anchor, but nothing is budging other than The Captain's rising frustration. Donning mask and flippers, he dives down hoping to be able to get deep enough to see something, but his ears protest long before he can get close enough to the 40’ depth where the anchor is located.
What to do? Of course, one could always cut the chain and leave the anchor down there. We do have another anchor we could use. However, this is no ordinary anchor stuck down there. It is a stainless steel 60# anchor with a replacement value of 3 to 4 Boat Units. For the uninitiated, a Boat Unit equates to $1,000 and is a common expression used when one is trying to absorb or rationalize the cost of anything on a boat. Thus, that simple piece of forged metal stuck down there costs between $3,000 to $4,000. It is not something one casually gives up on.

Greg James radios over from “Sirius” to find out if we have a problem. They had expected us long gone by now, and seeing us motoring in circles with Bill at the bow working the anchor controls, they suspect a problem and ask if they can help. By chance on our walks thru the little beach town, we had seen a tiny dive shop. Bill asks Greg for a dinghy ride to shore so he can walk to the shop. The dive shop radios its boat which just happens to be returning from a reef dive. With amazingly quick response, the dive boat reaches Avante just as Bill and Greg return. Their diver guesses that we are probably caught on one of the rocks below us. He puts on his gear and goes down. He is down there for a long time. We can see his bubbles moving around in a way that doesn’t fully make sense. When he comes up, we listen in amazement as he explains that the anchor and a good deal of chain are buried under a large wreck. We are not hooked on a rock or boulder. We are stuck under a boat, and that boat is large and very heavy. How the anchor and chain got there is anybody’s guess! The strong, shifting winds we had which barreled into the bay and caused all the boats to dance around their anchors were probably partly to blame as well the circling and pulling we ourselves had done earlier.
The diver goes down again with a rope to attach to the anchor hoping to be able to pull the anchor free from the other direction with his boat. No luck. The anchor and chain remain stuck. The diver talks about maybe having to cut our chain and forget about our anchor. We explain that we really do want to get our anchor back.

Out of air and needing reinforcements, he goes back to the shop. In an hour he returns with another diver and a crowbar. They dive on the anchor, and this time the two of them are able to free the anchor and use the rope to haul it up onto their boat. Our chain is still stuck under the boat, but at least, thankfully, we have the anchor. Chain is easier and much friendlier from a dollar perspective to replace. Our divers are good and are determined to try to free that chain. Down they go again to try to manhandle the chain around in a direction that would enable us on Avante to pull it free. Ready, they show us the direction to pull. It takes a bit of maneuvering to get Avante lined up and moving in the right direction. We motor above the wreck, put a bunch of slack in the chain then back up quickly till the chain pulls taut. We are using all of Avante’s 20 tons to try to drag our chain out from under the wreck. After several attempts, that sunken boat finally releases the last of our chain and up it comes. We are free. We have chain, and we have anchor. Bill uses up almost all of the Mexican money he has on hand to reward the divers. We feel lucky. Not many anchorages have divers nearby. What a start to a Travel Day!

Stainless steel 60# Anchor

Beautiful, isn’t it? But $4,000? The First Mate finds the cost of anything on a boat to be so ridiculously, incomprehensibly high that she no longer bothers to ask. Why?

It is now 1:00, a mere 5 hours after our planned 7:30 departure. The First Mate would like to spend the night and start all over again in the morning. The Captain will hear none of that. He is up. The weather forecast is favorable. He is ready to go, and there is no way he is dropping his anchor in this bay again! Off we go on an unjointly planned departure and not for Punta Ipala as originally scheduled. At a distance of 52 miles, there is no way we can reach there before dark. We will now continue overnight so we can head directly around Cabo Corrientes in the early morning hours and on up to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in Banderas Bay.

It proves a miserable trip. Winds build up in the afternoon. We put in the first reef. Seas are a mess. Waves break over the boat, soaking everything. One of the lazy jack connectors snaps. The Captain has to go forward to fix it. We continue into the evening with winds between 18 to 23. What about the forecast of max winds of 15 knots? What happened to those afternoon winds calming with the sunset? Did not happen. We turn on the engine and let the sails luff a bit to reduce the angle of the boat while we prepare and eat dinner. Tuna fish sandwiches for dinner. Nothing else can be handled in the galley. At some point, we decide to take in the jib to reduce sail. The jib will not wind in. The First Mate is beginning to wonder what else is going to go wrong. The Captain goes forward to investigate the problem and returns soaked. The jib furler is not working. The jib is “stuck” out there, and in the dark and the heavy seas, he unable to get to the cause of the problme. We could take down the jib rather than furl it, but we don’t want to do that in this wind and with these seas. We decide to let the jib fly and instead we lower the main sail. Somewhat settled and secure, we motorsail into the dark night. We finally round the point in the early morning hours. Winds calm to under 16. We raise the main sail letting out the reef. Crossing Banderas Bay toward La Cruz, winds continue to drop. So do the seas. After all these winds, we end up having to motor across Banderas Bay for the rest of the morning. What a trip! But wait --- Two Travel Days equal (or beget) 4 Savor Days. Though we do not have that many days left before returning to Telluride, we do have scheduled 2 days in La Cruz before heading into Paradise Village Marina to clean Avante. The First Mate thinks that she will just make sure unused Savor Days are worked into the schedule when we return in April! She cannot complain, though. Eleven Savor Days were worked into this Gold Coast cruise. Not bad!