the not so jolly anchor

​We have come to expect the unexpected when sailing. However, we seem to have forgotten about the completely expected and Mosquito Cove, Jolly Harbour, Antigua decided to take the opportunity to remind us....

We had had a lovely day out with new chums; lots of turtles around us during lunchtime BBQ, beautiful weather, snorkelling over a wreck and a very steady drift back under headsail in light airs. We dropped anchor in Mosquito Cove, but seemed to have found a poor spot as the anchor refused to bite. We decided to try again and it was at that point that we discovered we had hooked a large rope which appeared to be anchored to the sea bed at either end. Lots of fiddling with the windlass and a bit of boat hook work and we were free. “I bet there's a huge anchor at the end of the rope, if only we could recover it” said our chum. We moved location and re-anchored for the night.

Next day we decided to 'pop' to the fuel pontoon in Jolly Harbour – a job that shouldn't have taken long. However, as we attempted to raise the anchor we discovered that this time we managed to bring up the very anchor our friend had suggested might exist. A large fisherman's anchor presented itself and so we launched the skipper into the dinghy and attempted the standard procedure of tying another rope around the stray anchor and lowering our anchor to free ourselves. Oh no, never that simple on a boat. This time our anchor came up wrapped in chain and rope. Obviously this mess was tied to the fisherman's anchor just outside of our view through the murky water, and just dipping our anchor to free it, we had managed to get further entangled. More lines were required, first around our anchor and then around the tangle of chains, but finally we managed to get rid of the mess. It was then just a case of dropping the slip line around the fisherman's anchor and we were finally free - 40 minutes and some sweat later!

We can't decide if Murphy's Law or Sod's Law is most appropriate in this situation. Perhaps we need to define a new Sailor's Law that encompasses both...