Judy and I made a late night trip last night to the tidal flats at the West end of Liberty Bay. We teamed up for the mission of anchor retrieval from the other days sailboat rescue.

Here the low tide exposes a lot of territory, but I had a fair idea of where the anchor, and its 200' rode, would be stretched along out there. This had to be a night mission, as the really low tides, for the next couple months, are all in the crazy hours when it's dark and deserted.

So here we are out there at a dark 9:30 PM in rubber boots and raingear. We walked in from a public access on the South side of the bay, armed with a small walking flashlight, a nice big charged up million candle power spotlight and a lot of guts.
Judy stays back a ways from me for safety as I start by staying by the waterlogged half exposed logs in the sandy gooey surface, occasionally sweeping an ark of light looking for the solid areas to use as access to the anchor that remains elusive out here.

At times, if I pause at all, my boots will stick in some of this muck and then its down on all fours, twist one foot to the side a little to suck it out, and then do the other. I can see where the really mucky spots are and the bay bottom here is on a slight slope. Stay away from deep accumulations in the level flats.
I have done this before and there are places that can trap you good. Don't go there.

Perhaps some of the surrounding homes at shore side have seen my sweeping light and are wondering why someone is out here in this nasty weather at such a late hour.

I finally catch a glimpse of the plow anchor elbow protruding like a handle out of this glop. By carrying this, my feet have to move quicker. And steady or we sink in just a couple inches and bog down with each step sinking more to release its brother, until I'm down on all fours doing the Houdini escape.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted and can imagine being trapped and too pooped to pop. The tide is slowly going to catch me and I'm much too worn out to really care. Then Judy will have to summon a shore side rescue party and they will have to use the 200' anchor rode to tug of war me out of this muck.

I take a rest break and continue on as the footing becomes more weight bearing. We near the shoreline of the South Bay protection. It turns out all right.

I asked Judy to knock at the home's door where we ended up. I could see thru the picture windows, a couple was up reading a paper and the TV was on. Pitch black out here. Probably a bad idea for a swamp creature man to knock on that door this time of night.
Judy is dressed all nice, even in her raingear, and looks like she's on her way to the Copa Cabanna for the evening entertainment. So that worked out pretty nice I must say, and she got permission to bring the Ruby dog transport car over here to their driveway.

Now we're sitting all nice and warm back at Judy's place watching the late night news, glad we are not on it.

So the anchor is back, it's Thanksgiving Day and all weekend too, with family and friends. The tide can come and go as it pleases again without a care from us. For now.
Have a great Thanksgiving...get your eatin' irons at the ready! -Bruce

Up-date: The picture is of the rescued boat now back safe at anchor on a calm winter day. Still have to get one of my tow lines back.