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More anchor follies...
This past weekend I anchored up near Jamestown, wind and tide were working hand in hand at keeping the anchor line pinned tight. It kept reminding me with the occasional moan from the strain it was under. Bite was slow, measuring board still dry...time to move.
54' below me, is my brand new grappler-anchor, zip-tied for a second chance effort if needed. I fire up the engine and push forward a little to take some strain off the rope...then I rush the rope and start jerking, doesn't take long before it's pinned again...tide is rushing too hard and it's got the wind at its back. After numerous attempts, I decide to change the angle and pull from the opposite direction. This too is a chore due to wind and tide. I only have 100' of rope, so with 54' doled out, I don't have much for maneuverability.. ......shiny-new grappler still isn't budging so I pull from another direction, then another. Determined to get my brand new grappler back, I remained stubborn. So stubborn, that it took over an hour of numerous failed attempts before I decided to cut the rope. I just couldn't understand why the zip-tie had failed me?? I even tried using the boat to power it out...nothing but an angry motor and turbulent water.
Due to the stage of the tide and the amount of line I had out...I wanted to retrieve as much as possible before cutting her free. Not that I'd be using this line again, but I wanted to minimize the amount of line I'd be leaving behind. I've never had to abandon an anchor before and thought this was the best I could do at the moment? I started pulling the line as tight as I could...I had the knife handy for when the time was right. Little by little I pulled on the line...whenever I thought I had reached its limit, I gained a little more. With the tide and wind still working against me, I just figured I was slowly pulling the boat tighter and tighter to the anchor. This went on for longer than it should have, but each time I'd give that last backward lean..I'd gain an inch. I even grabbed the knife a couple of times, but at the last second, I could advance a hand forward and had to drop it. I suddenly began to realize that I had quite a bit of line in the boat, more than I should if I'm anchored in 54' of water. This gave me a second wind allowing me to muster up what little energy I had left and continue to heave backward. I was never so happy to hear the chain slap the hull...I somehow got it up? It took me a moment to absorb what I was looking at when I reached over the port side....
From what I gather, I had hooked an abandoned lobster line or one lost in a storm. The grappler tines were embedded in the over-grown busted cage of a pot with the rope intertwined around the rest of the grappler. I must have hooked the pot or line and then woven a mess by trying to pry the anchor from different angles. It looked quite the mess...worthy of a picture, but I'm not much of a photo guy. Still holding tight to the chain, it took me a minute to realize why it seemed so heavy and why I couldn't get it into the boat....it had friends! The main line was leading down to another pot I imagine, as the line disappeared into the darkness. Tried as I may, I could not gain another inch. Although I was happy to see that the zip-tie had broken, it didn't really matter because the aged rope was woven around the grappler tines as if braided by King Neptune himself! I finally freed the grappler with as little damage as possible to the abandoned pot line.
Sunday was a better day, but I was perplexed again with multiple schools of mackerel breaching the surface with no visible bait around ...nor predators. Not sure what this ritual is...but they wouldn't touch a thing?? I actually put a pogy snagger on just to confirm what they were....I snagged one, but couldn't get a single one to chase a tree or any of the shiny metals I tossed? I can't see that many fish zoned in on micro-organisms, especially at the speed they were traveling, and not hit a jig/tree?? I'm sure some of you have witnessed this before....thoughts??
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