SY Scrabbler

We decided to save ourselves 20 Euro a night and anchor in the river, just off the marina. We had seen a number of other yachts at anchor there before and the forecast was for a fairly settled night with winds of 12 knots gusting no more than 20.

We headed out about 6pm and set the anchor in 3.5m under keel at half ebb. This would give us around 2m under the keel at low tide and 5m at high water. We then settled down to dinner before turning in around 11pm.

We were both woken at 1.30am with the wind howling through the rigging and the boat violently yawing as the incoming tide was opposing 30 knots of Northerly wind. The waves in the river were now about 1m high with a short period and occasionally broke. The boat went from heavily rolling side on to the waves to pitching as she swung round to face them. I managed to prevent the swinging by lashing the helm to starboard and she rode fairly comfortably facing the tide and stern onto the wind. We decided that it would be difficult to raise the anchor and retreat to the marina so we settled back down. The boat sat comfortably this way until 4.30am when the tide started to slacken off.

At 4.30am, the boat started yawing again. When we went back on deck, the waves had increased in size and the wind had picked up further. More worryingly, the anchor alarm started going off and we were in 8.5m of water. With the tidal range, this should have been no more than 5.5m at high water, so we were clearly slipping. We now had the choice of putting out more chain to stop us slipping or raising the anchor to reset or return to the marina. We decided that it was time to call it a night and raise the anchor as we were clearly not going to get any more sleep.

Raising the anchor was no mean feat with the boat still pitching. Jana was at the helm and motored over the anchor as we swung. I wrestled with the anchor and chain. It's very frustrating to lose 1m for every 2m that you pull up! Finally the anchor broke the surface but it had snagged something heavy. I couldn't see exactly what in the darkness but I cleared it with the boat hook and the anchor then felt as light as a feather.

We headed for the marina and eventually crawled back into bed around 5.45am.

If anyone is heading this way then this is no doubt a great anchorage in perfect weather. Otherwise don't try it and don't trust the forecasts as 20 Euro is not much for a good nights sleep.