Well, finally got a chance to try it out on a little Saturday/Sunday overnighter.
Put in at Crescent Lake about 5 PM, took a little cruise down to the South end of the lake and back in about 5-10 kts wind, then about an hour before sunset I anchored about 200 yds off the lee side of the island that's in the middle of the lake.
Once I was satisfied the anchor was holding, I proceeded to prepare the boat for overnighting: used the jib halyard hooked to the reef hook to hoist the boom up and out of the way. I just wrapped the topping lift around the aft end of the boom a few times to raise that end. I also tied off the reef line to the tiller tamer on the raised up tiller to get that out of the way, and to keep the boom from swinging around. For an anchor light, using the main halyard, I hoisted an LED lantern up the topping lift, stopping just short of the top of the mast so it wouldn't bang against it.
Proceeded to enjoy a nice warm bowl of beef stew while watching a beautiful sunset, and that's when the no-see-ums decided to come out and ambush us! I have no idea what kind of bugs these are, but they don't sting or bite, they just seem to be attracted to the white topsides. They weren't even attracted to the anchor light. What a mess! They were everywhere. This had happened to me once before, but it was while I was un-rigging the boat after sunset, and they went away after a half hour or so. Not so Sat night ...
At least I was able to keep them out of the tent/cot.
That was really the only downer of the whole trip. After dinner, I stashed the rest of the gear in the cuddy, and set up the tent/cot. The wind was still blowing 5-10 out of the west, and the boat was rocking around pretty well at anchor, but it was still easy to set up. By the time I turned in it had settled down tho. Then I checked the anchor one last time - I knew it was holding because there was a bright orange crab trap float right off the starboard gunwale that had not moved since I first anchored.
I also got the chance to test out the map area feature on my GPS that I wanted to use as a "dragging anchor alarm". I set up a perimeter of about 350 sq yds with my location in the center. My anchor line is about 100 ft long, so I figured that was enough wiggle room. But sure enough, about 4 in the morning I was woken up by the GPS beeping, and it showed that I was outside the perimeter. Took a peek outside, and my little orange friend had moved. The wind had picked up again, but out of the south, and the boat had swung around. The anchor was still holding tho. I reset the perimeter and went back to sleep.
Woke up about 7, wondering why it was light out but not really light out. Took another peek outside, and there was fog so thick that the island was invisible. Talk about surreal! Figured I wasn't going anywhere any time soon, so took my time breaking down the tent/cot, making coffee/breakfast, and getting the boat back into sailing configuration. The fog finally burned off about 10 and I had a nice leisurely sail back to the ramp.
All in all, with the exception of the bugs, I was very happy with this arrangement, and am looking forward to the next chance I get to try it out again.
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:48 pm
