Day 6 & 7 - Finally some excitement

Entrance to Roscoe Bay

View of the Trail to Black Lake

We were commenting how everything was sort of just coasting along and wouldn't you know....a minor catastrophe.

We pull up anchor on Thursday morning with the huge commute of 2 miles from Prideaux Haven to Roscoe Bay. A walk to the lake and a small beach fire was the order of the day. Oh, and some more varnishing while the sun was still out with us. We pulled into Roscoe Bay with 7 feet of water under us in the entrance, we kind of missed high tide...but no worries, we made it in safe and sound. Betty on the bow scouting for rocks and Mikey at the helm. We anchored in about 16' of water just swinging on the hook (no line to shore)and proceeded to get on with the day, a little sightseeing and a little fire and a little hike. Round abouts happy hour, we turn on the VHF to listen to the weather forcast, well....it certainly did not sound
promising, Storm Warnings, Gale Force Warnings and an Artic Front moving in with a chance of Snow??? I sayz to myself " did we just enter the Twilight Zone?".....
Mike is not comfortable being in a blow just swinging on the Anchor and needless to say, Nervous Nelly Betty would just as soon be tied to a dock. A decision was made that we would pull anchor and move further into the bay and attach a line to shore and ride out the storm. Good thing we were only one drink into happy hour!

We started to pull anchor and wouldn't you know it.....the anchor winch stopped working ##@&##@@ (Expletives with a capital F) The Anchor was right at the top of the winch and as soon as the winch stopped, about 30 more feet of chain started spooling back into the ocean along with the 80 lb. anchor. The anchor might as well have weighed a ton for the luck we hand in trying to hand pull it up! So says the crafty one...."get your prawn puller out and we will just have to winch the anchor up with that"......so the negative one just scoffs and says its not gonna happen, the prawn puller is meant to pull up about 50 lbs. After almost breaking the prawn puller to prove a point, Mike resorts to tieing a rope around the anchor chain (he is in the dinghy) and telling me to pull up the chain and anchor and secure it to the deck. You can almost see the story unfolding....no spinach for breakfast, and flabby under the arms Betty is called a weakling.....we have to switch places.

We change places, Betty in the Dinghy and Mike on the deck. With some skillful dinghy drivingby Betty(with large rope secured around the Chain) and Mikes puny muscles, we manage to get the chain in and the anchor to the top of the winch. At this point, Betty is covered in stinky, oozy mud from the bottom of the ocean and Mike is screaming "Lift the anchor".....ever tried to lift a slimey 80 lb. anchor over your head? After some serious grunting and swearing, the deed is done. The anchor and chain are securely lashed to the deck and we head off for Refuge Cove to a dock and safety out of the wind. Our ride over had us hitting wind speeds of 35 knots, but the ocean was just rippled. An fitting end to an eventful Day. Photos to follow....Mike needs the internet right now to shop for a new winch!!