So its Tuesday and Melissa is back-to-back in meetings. Dave lets us loose from the mooring buoy at Blake Island at around 11am, and we head to Gig Harbor. It’s a bit of a grey and cloudy day, so the solar is not making much power.
We arrive in Gig Harbor between meetings so Melissa can anchor the boat. Gig Harbor is a bit cramped and deep, so Dave instructs Melissa to put down 200 feet of chain (all the chain we have). Been ages since we put it all out. We haven’t put out more than 150 feet since the chain was re-galvanized. So that last 50 feet of chain looks like new! We back down and Dave is sure the anchor is dragging, but (shocker!) Melissa says to wait because she thinks the chain is just straightening out. Sure enough, Dave backs down, and the anchor holds!
Shortly thereafter another boat tries to anchor nearby. When anchoring, typically, all the boats are pointed the same direction in the wind. The new boat drops their anchor nearly on top of ours (Dave fretted when they pulled up they would pull our anchor loose). Then backs down – going opposite direction to all the boats at anchor. Dave is like, “um, but, as soon as you turn off the engine you are going to slam into the side of us”. Mind you they were in a $1 Million dollar+ valued yacht. First time anchoring maybe? Before we pulled up anchor to move a safe distance away, they decided to pull up anchor and move. Whew.
Dave goes exploring. And low and behold a sight we have never seen. A floating dock! It deflates into a box about 1 foot x 1 foot x 2 feet. So takes a fair bit of space. But you can walk around on it – right to the edge without it flipping. Put chairs on it. And launch kayaks from it. Would be like having a patio attached to your boat.
Ok, might have to get one if we can just figure out where to store it!