Sunday, September 18, 2022

Dragging.

This morning, the wind shifted to south westerly, so my anchor dragged several meters before it reset itself. And so, Eidos got  really close to an unoccupied  boat that is on a mooring. At one point, I had to push it away with a boat hook. 
The starting battery is dead, so I couldn't start the engine to move out of the way. Had to pull up some anchor chain to get away. Luckily, after an hour  the wind shifted again and now all seems ok. I must take the batteries to shore to charge them tomorrow. They are bloody heavy! Hopefully the wind will remain steady. Never a dull moment. 
Update:
Here is the second battery in the dinghy. The first one is already on shore. With the help of another sailor, a local fireman and a taxi driver, I managed to find someone who came to the harbor and took them away to charge overnight. He said he will bring them back tomorrow morning. I hope I will be able to reconnect the cables correctly.
Ok, so the batteries are back, charged and reconnected. The engine started. All good. Not. I tried to lift the anchor so that I could move little farther away from the boat on the mooring but the anchor will not come up. And so I need a diver. The good thing is that now that Eidos will not drag. Still too close to the other boat but at least no more dragging. Perhaps I should stay here all year.
My neighbours,  Uli and Veronika recommended a local diver business and called them for me. Couple of hours later they showed up and while James went looking for the anchor I spoke with his wife Vicky. Soon James had it untangled and I was able to re-anchor. Over the past two months that I've been here in all kinds of winds from different directions the anchor probably scraped the bottom clean while dragging around and resettin and pulled up picked up all this junk which eventually I wasn't able to pull up with the anchor. I think from now on, I will pull up the anchor at least every couple of weeks just to make sure that it's clean and the chain runs smoothly.I am now 100 euros poorer but can sleep well from now on and not worry about colliding with the boat on the mooring. Keeping my fingers crossed. Oh and by the way, I was  filmed and interviewed during this time. I promised I would not say any more until I get an okay from the camera man.

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