It is calm and peaceful here this morning, anchored in Falmouth. The trades are blowing through the opened hatches and I’m working on the computer. I ran out of coffee beans, but am using the pre-ground Espresso package that I had in place for “medical emergencies”. I’m going to have to walk up the hill and buy some freshly-roasted local coffee soon.
Late morning
After a couple of hours of work I took a break and watched Marjorie and Mark arrive on Sea Life. Just a bit later something didn’t feel right aboard Zanshin. I went up topsides and looked around, but noted nothing which aroused my suspicions. I did look towards the Catamaran Marina and thought to myself that the waters were particularly clear and colorful in the anchorage. Upon closer inspection, It looked rather shallow behind the boat.
I got worried and turned on the chartplotter to see 11 feet under the keel (19 feet total) but then the numbers started dropping as I swung about in the wind. The lowest was 5 feet under the keel, but the sounder is located just forward of the keel. And my rudder is almost as deep as the keel and far less solid and placed about 30 feet aft of the depth gauge.
I called Mark on the VHF and asked if he could drop by with the portable depth sounder, which I’d loaned to him a couple of days ago. He zipped over and did a couple of measurements and confirmed that only a few feet behind/beside Zanshin the water was a mere 7 feet deep. Considering I’d dropped the anchor in over 25 feet I realized I was precariously close to the reef.
I thanked him and re-anchored immediately. My new position is about 100 feet more to windward and in a bit deeper water. But this has the advantage that should I drag, I have a 100 of progressively shallower water for the anchor to bite on before I run aground.
Afternoon
I’m going to call it quits at work soon and then have to decide what I want to do before the 7PM Quiz Night ashore; I’ll be joining Marjorie and Mark to create a strong team. Our drinks will be free should we win!
Although the Classic regatta hasn’t begun yet, the boats are arriving and I got a call that they desperately needed people to do the dinghy work. So I shut down my computer and turned off the power before heading ashore.
Although I did do some work, the need wasn’t quite as acute as advertised. I did use the trip to do a bit of shopping for coffee and butter and retraced my steps from the night before to see if I could recover my flashlight. No such luck, unfortunately.
Evening
Tonight was quiz night and Marjorie, Mark and I consumed sufficient quantities of alcohol to place 3rd amongst bigger and more British teams. Some of the questions were of a very British format, so as a French, Australian and German team we found ourselves at a distinct disadvantage. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. So much fun that I forget to whip out and use my camera.