What a drag

As outlined in the previous post, we left Hiva Oa early yesterday. We had strong winds and arrived mid-afternoon. The anchorage was busy with 11 other boats and it dropped off steeply so some boats were in over 100 feet of water for their anchors. We pulled up right in front (catamarans do not draw very much) and dropped anchor. By supper time it was clear we had dragged back, but it was hard to tell if the dragging was done or not. We enjoyed the antics of a herd of goats on the cliff beside us as we had dinner.

I went to bed (after the dishes) and about an hour later heard Bill – “Shawn, we need to move”. We had continued to drag and were too close to a neighbour. Unfortunately it was dark and it is never fun resetting anchors in the dark. We pulled up the anchor, dropped it again, back to bed. Some time later (not very long) and the engines started. We were dragging again, faster and towards the surf pounding against a large cliff face. One more attempt and again no hold.

Because this was happening in a crowded anchorage we had very few options – boats everywhere. But as Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We discussed the options and decided to try a second anchorage about 3 miles down the island.

We motored down to Omoa and as we approached we could hear a tremendous surge at the shore. There was one sailboat at anchor and two local boats on mooring balls in over 100 feet of depth. Again, coming into an unknown harbour/anchorage in the dark is harrowing, let alone one that looks sketchy at best. After another quick regroup we decided that Fatu Hiva did not want us and so we would head back north towards Tahuata, which was our next port of call. We fell into our night passage routine – Sharon on until 1:00am, Bill until 4:00am then I was on duty.

So another night passage back and this morning we stopped at the first anchorage on Tahuata. There were three boats at anchor (a forth had just pulled out), so we came in and dropped anchor under the tower hill. We are maybe 3 or 4 boat-lengths from shore in about 40 feet of water.

The good news is that it is much harder to drag an anchor uphill into shallower waters that it is to drag it out to sea, which is what happened last night.

Let me say anchoring is always one of the most anxiety causing events as a sailor. Bill has over 250 feet of chain, which back home is a massive amount. The challenge here in the Marquesas is that a few hundred feet from shore you are in a few hundred feet of water. A general rule of thumb is 5x your depth for the chain you let out. In 100 feet of depth this is 500 feet of anchor chain/rode!

I have a feeling we will have a few more learning experiences here adapting to volcanic rock seafloor that drops out from under you in a few boat lengths.

That said, we seem to be holding firm, but we will continue to watch!