The mother of all tangles!

The mother of all tangles!

TUESDAY 21 AUGUST 2007

Perhaps the worst aspect of this experience was that it went on and on all through the night; the wind had strengthened about 6 p.m. on Monday and it wasn't until about 8 a.m. the following day that the wind dropped to a 6 and 7. We had both stayed up all night, playing games and frequent checks on the anchors and position of the boat. I was then able to leave Sheila on anchor watch and catch up on some sleep.

By eight p.m. the wind had moderated to a 4 and we decided to try to re-anchor in mid river away from the wall.

Surprisingly I was easily able to free the kedge warp from the back of the boat and led it to the bow in order to recover the Danforth anchor. This, however, proved extremely difficult; even with the aid of the electric windlass we just could not break it out. We began to suspect that it had fouled the Delta anchor chain so we changed tactics and started to wind in the main chain. An incredible tangle of chain and anchors eventually broke the surface; the kedge and the Bruce together with their respective chains were wrapped around the Delta chain in a serpents’ honeymoon of a tangle. The only way we finally managed to clear this mess was to lean precariously outside the pulpit and unshackle the Danforth (having attached a line to its crown). We were then able to pull the kedge chain clear and slide the anchor out of the knotted chain.


The Bruce proved even more difficult to extract. This was achieved by full fathom coiling, tying the coil (i.e. 100 meters of 12mm anchor plait) and then passing the entire coil over and under the Delta chain, all the while nervously checking that we were still holding. This process involved a few near headfirst entries into the River Suances, but ultimately proved successful. One relatively minor mishap was that unnoticed my barbed fish lure, which I foolishly keep in the kedge warp drum, first attached itself to the kedge warp and then to my thumb. It occurred to me that the tangled anchors had probably acted as an effective angel; weighing down the Delta chain.

Finally, in the gathering twilight we were able to anchor in mid river away from both walls with 30 meters of chain on the Delta and, after re-shackling and seizing the Danforth, 20 meters of kedge warp. We had a curry and a bottle of Rioja – it had never tasted so good and went to bed feeling relatively safe.