In a Jersey Jam

There is only one anchorage in the harbor with water deep enough for Fregata. This small anchorage was already crowded with three other sailboats. We thought we’d sneak into a spot equidistant from all three. The shallow water wouldn’t require much anchor chain and therefore would minimize swing radius. We dropped the “hook” and tested it by backing down the engine. Fregata’s Ultra anchor has been very reliable and has never dragged… yet. So it came as a big surprise when we began floating backward into the channel, which was full of boat traffic in all directions. We began to raise the anchor to try another spot. When it was almost up on deck, the windlass stopped abruptly. To our shock, we had hooked a big fat cable with a loop on the end, draped diagonally over the anchor.

Dan tried to wrestle it off with a boat hook, but it was too heavy and the loop was tight on the anchor. So Sandy took the helm. With no steerage, she had to use bursts of engine and bow thruster to keep Fregata more or less in the same place and avoid hitting the wall-to-wall boats all around us or drifting into shallow water. At least the cable was slowing things down, although it must have been very long and seemed to follow along with us quite a distance.

Meanwhile, Dan quickly lowered the dinghy, which he drove up to the bow of Fregata with a pair of heavy work gloves on. There, he was able to muscle the cable off of the anchor, and drop it back to the bottom. He quickly tied the dinghy to Fregata’s stern and came back on board to help Sandy at the helm. Fregata had drifted toward dangerously shallow water, but we avoided running aground.

After gathering our wits, we moved to another part of the harbor where we managed to find a suitable place to drop the anchor.

Despite our stereotypes of people from New Jersey, nobody blasted a horn at us, gave us a finger, or shouted obsenities as we worked through this predicament, but nobody offered assistance either. Dan spent the next hour down in the engine room doing some maintenance on the diesel generator.

Finally, after a light meal and some Netflix standup comedy to take our minds off the stressful afternoon, we went to bed early in anticipation of our 0300 depature for the 120 NM run up to New York City.

Dan left New Jersey more than 50 years ago and never looked back. It was never a place he enjoyed living or missed (except for his childhood friend, Shep). Perhaps this experience was due revenge for disavowing the state. Glad to be moving on!