My regular anchoring hole at Fisherman Bay is off to the side at the second turn of the entrance channel. I like to anchor there because it is a short dinghy run out to the public beach access for Lopez Village and is in a semi-wind shadow due to the small bluff on shore.
I am truly embarrassed to tell my part in this mini-story because I know better and still did everything wrong.
We arrived late in the afternoon after exploring Watmough Bay and the southern tip of Lopez.
It was close to low tide and the depth sounder where I lowered the anchor was reading eight feet. I let out all my chain rode (30') and cleated off in the first foot or two of nylon. Then I momentarily slipped Kraken into reverse for a few seconds until she began to pull some. The bow swung around and I am sure the anchor set because we came to an abrupt stop. We settled in, cooked stir-fry for dinner and watched movies.
During the night the tide came in and was back out in the morning.
We took the dinghy to the village. It was a minus tide and we had a terrible time pulling/dragging
the Livingston up over all the newly exposed slippery seaweed but we got it all the way to the driftwood and tied her to a big rock. We had a late lunch and stayed in Lopez village longer than planned. When we arrived back at the dinghy, water was lapping at the driftwood and she was half floating but still tied to the rock.
There was no struggle this time we simply shoved off and headed for Kraken except Kraken was not where I left her. Before panic could set in I spotted her several hundred feet further into Fisherman Bay, neatly tied to an old wood float. As we dinghied the last few feet I connected all the dots and realized how lucky I was. I had printed the week's tide tables, but never looked at them. If I had I would have known there were king tides and minus tides all that week. I would have known there was nearly a fourteen-foot tide range that day. kraken had simply floated her anchor and away she went.
After getting everything shipshape, I cast off from our new temporary home and motored over to a lady on a nearby anchored boat and asked if she had caught Kraken. She said yes she had. I thanked her profusely and as I did I thought to myself, was I just dumb and lucky, or was I spending credits I had paid forward.
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