Recently, I visited a cool site maintained by a fellow liveaboard - Cygnus IIIOne of his postings talked about fear at anchor. At least I think it did. I can't find it again. But it's a great blog and worth perusing.
Anyway, there was a discussion about what kind of sailor are you at anchor. I decided I was the type who constantly checks to see if the anchor has slipped and is concerned about leaving the boat...
This is a bad thing according to the idea of Living Boldly.
However.
"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Joseph Heller Or "Just because you're afraid the anchor's going to slip, doesn't mean it won't..."
I'm not a typical sailor or liveaboard, if there is such a thing. I never dreamed of sailing the seas and living onboard a sailing vessel while gathering coconuts with my lover and eating fish we'd caught and making love under the stars on a deserted island.
No.
I abhorred boats and all things water-related because of crippling motion sickness.
However.
The love of my life lived/lives on a sailboat and I didn't want to live without him.
My approach is not to claim to be unafraid. I still throw up the first few days of a cruise, I constantly worry about pulling in and out of docks and I live in fear of the anchor slipping and throwing us up on a rocky shore or into a megayacht. But I don't let it stop me. I push through the fear and live the life of dreams anyway. Anyone can. It's okay to be afraid, but it's not okay to let it paralyze you. Take Dramamine, check the anchor line, make sure your insurance is up to date, and sail the seas of whatever dreams you have.
And don't forget to make love under the stars...
Evelyn, Thank you for reading our blog and referring to it. (Cygnus III).
ReplyDeleteIn the last two years we have not been in a marina apart from in winter. We have always been anchored. The first year of anchoring totally wore me down as I was unable to sleep properly for fear of dragging and would often find myself on deck at 0300 with only the stars to keep me company.
This last year we have grown more use to anchoring and I have started to sleep like a baby (why do we say that when babies are always waking up?). Anyway, I slept well.
In the last two years we have not dragged once even in bad weather and sometimes the fear in your mind is worse than reality.
Next year we will be anchoring everywhere again and I will be in my bed sucking my thumb.
Thank you for this post. It is a fear of a lot of people anchoring.
To prepare for the 2014 WInterfest Boat Parade here in Fort Lauderdale, we had to leave our docking location and anchor. I love being on the hook as I find it peaceful and as close to nature as you can get and still be comfortable :) Mark, your post was on my mind as we set the anchor and then drifted off to sleep. And drifted about 125' when the anchor dragged due to the 8' of silt that is prevalent in the ICW. But we finally caught, enjoyed the parade and appreciated a weekend that was once again really close to nature.
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