Day 5: Blaksleys

Lovely day today. Steve did some fishing before breakfast and caught 3 bream which was pretty exciting, except they were under-size.  He gave up after that, obviously we were anchored over a fish kindergarten. Decided not to move on today after our stressful episode last night. Watched our position closely through both high and low tides. No dragging.

bom warning

The pointer indicates where we’re anchored!

About 3.30pm a ‘dangerous thunderstorm’ hit (as described by the Bureau of Meteorology). We were prepared and had a contingency if we were to drag and dammit if we didn’t – directly towards a power boat that had just anchored before the storm hit. Steve jumped onto the outboard and we motored to support the anchor and stop going back any further. Scary! Particularly as it was hailing and Steve had to sit out there in it. No doubt we would have hit the other boat if he hadn’t.

hail storm

Note the hail, and poor Steve!

Fortunately it was a fast moving storm and all over in about 15 minutes. We then retrieved our anchor to discover it had been fouled with some scrap rubber stuff which prevented one of the flukes from digging in. Reset anchor.
On the up side a very large cat that was anchored down from us also dragged his anchor and moved right over where we would have been if we hadn’t also dragged. A guardian angel?
More storms forecast so we’ve now put out a second anchor. Another unsettled night I fear.

after storm

A couple of hours later!

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