This morning I was ready for the mud when I pulled up anchor.
Bucket of water: check
Wash down hose connected with new nozzle: check
It was windy, so it was slow going pulling the chain up ... with no mud. The mud that was there was being washed off before I pulled it on the boat. I couldn't pull up the last 20 feet of chain. Too much wind and the anchor was stuck in the bottom. I'm supposed to use the mast winches to help me. Maybe one of these days I'll learn to do that! Eventually the wind blew the bow sideways and freed the anchor. Another morning work out.

The wind (13-17) and waves were against us going to Baltimore, so motor again we did. Baltimore Harbor was pretty busy. In the Northwest Harbor, there is a small anchorage area among the marinas. Several boats were there and we struggled to get anchored. Paradise Hunter circled over and over trying to anchor to no avail. Someone dinghied over to both of us to tell us the bottom was full of garbage and plastic bags, so make sure we verified the anchor was set. I was lucky that my anchor set every try and never pulled up any garbage. But I still had to pull it up three times because the anchorage was tight and if the anchor didn't hit bottom exactly where you wanted it to, your boat ended up where you didn't want it to be. I was getting tired from pulling up 60 feet of chain and a 45lb anchor again and again. So the same guy dinghied over to me and offered to be at the helm so I could stay in the bow and drop the hook in a spot near the stern of his boat. That worked well. Depending on the wind direction, I still ended up closer than I wanted to be to another boat - the one who watched me anchor and told me how much chain he had out. The wind is not predicted to come from the direction that might cause problems, so I will stay. And be wary. The blog photo shows the housing right along our anchorage. We are providing the advertised scenery for the residents.