Must be Good

Today was a slog: forty miles, eight hours, no wind, hazy warm day. Generally scenic, but not much to look at compared to previous days.

We're in Dol Bay tonight, so named because the chart has a dolphin identified and it's abbreviated Dol. The dolphin no longer exists. I wonder what it's original use was: as a mooring post or part of an old dock perhaps.

We dropped the anchor a couple hundred feet from a smooth surfaced madrona tree (Chuck calls them Arbutus trees; he's a forestry engineer so he gets to use the genus names where the rest of us have to use common names) that was close to shore. We set the anchor as we always do, then backed Quijote toward the tree. We quit spooling out chain when the stern was about fifty feet from shore and the depth was 25'. I left the shifter in reverse to keep the boat steady while Chuck rowed in the dinghy toward the tree. As he rowed, I spooled out the stern line and tag line from the boat. When he got to shore he hit the beach with three lines: stern line, tag line and dinghy painter. Doing his best not to get lines tangled in oars, he clambered up the beach, anchored the dinghy, and continued on up to the madrona tree, dodging bullets and shrapnel while lobbing his grenades. He passed the stern line around the tree and then tied the tag line to it. With that done, I was free to start hauling on the tag line from the boat, which pulled the end of the stern line back to the boat, where it was tied to the aft quarter. Then I hauled all the slack out of the stern line and cleated it to the other aft quarter. Chuck rowed back to the boat and snubbed the anchor while I re-spooled the tag line and stored it away. Easy peasy. In the morning we we can pull the stern line free without getting off the boat.

Dinner tonight was bbq'd sausages with potatoes and broccoli. I like bbq grilled sausages smothered in deli mustard and mashed potatoes smothered in butter, pepper and sour cream. Some meals are just meant to be smothered.

This anchorage has turned into a four alarm zoo. There's a disturbing mix of stern tied and non-stern tied boats.

Thankfully, as one of the boats that's tied close to shore, we're out of the fray, watching all the goings on. Chuck and I did our anchoring rather smartly (if we do say so ourselves), providing little entertainment for those that were already here. The boats that came in afterward were not so selfish. Anchor out, anchor in, bow thruster?! Stern line out, stern line in anchor out anchor in. Meanwhile, the "mariner" next to us set his anchor under his boat with 1:1 scope. I guess if you're confident in getting through the night with zero wind, why not? He hasn't moved so far; it must be good.