Culebra, PR -- Ensenada Honda

[Kevin's Post]Today it was our turn to rescue a dragging boat.  We have been anchored in the harbor near the Culebra town of Dewey for a few days longer than we had planned trying to finish up our taxes using the wi-fi here.  A big regatta started yesterday attracting boats from all around and we were hoping to be long gone before the festivities got started.  Now we remember why.  This morning I was writing an email when we heard some airhorn blasts (thank god for airhorns).  Amanda went outside to see what was going on and suggested I might want to come outside to see something.  There was a monohull about 30 feet in front of our bow, and getting closer.  It was blowing 15-20 knots.  This boat was originally anchored several hundred feet away.  We decided to let out more chain to get some distance between us.  Of course with our long bridle, that meant we had to motor forward and pull chain in to remove the bridle before we could let any out.  So Amanda took the helm and masterfully piloted us to within 5 feet of the stern of the other boat, so I could quickly unclip the bridle.  Then I let out about 30 feet more chain.  We watched the other boat hoping that their anchor had set and that they wouldn't get any closer.  Nope, they were still getting closer.  Last December we bought a 35 lb danforth anchor and mounted it on the port bow pulpit so that we would have a second anchor that could be deployed quickly in an emergency.  Of course when we dragged in Luperon, I didn't have any rope attached to it.  Oops.  We learned from that mistake and have since attached 275' of rode in a bag lashed to the corner of the trampoline.  I grabbed the danforth and anchor rode bag and tossed it in the dinghy figuring it would be fastest to just re-anchor their boat with my own anchor.  I dinghied about 100 feet in front of them and chucked the danforth in the water.  Then I dinghied back to their bow and cleated off the rode.  I tied off the dinghy to their boat, climbed aboard and started hauling in the rode I just cleated off to make sure the danforth was set and to get a little more distance between them and us.  This all took about 3 minutes.  It was an awesome performance and I don't think anybody even noticed.  Oh well.

I was a little worried that their anchor had dragged over our chain and would get fouled if they tried to pull it up.  So I put on my snorkel gear and jumped in the water to take a look.  The water here is a little murky and you can't see the bottom even though it is only 8 feet deep.  Trying to follow 100 feet of chain along the bottom is hard when you can't see it from the surface.  I would swim along the bottom until I ran out of air, come up for a breath and try to go back down before I drift too far and lose the chain.  I lost it several times, and had to swim perpendicular to the chain along the bottom until I found it again.  I eventually found our anchor, and theirs.  It must have been a 1000 to 1 chance, but their anchor actually hit our anchor and was deflected to the side coming to rest about 3 feet downwind and to the left of our anchor.  A few feet to the left and they would have missed it completely, a few feet to the right and they would have snagged our chain.    They only have about 50 feet of chain out, which is about 4:1 scope.  Not enough for 20 knots wind.

It's been several hours and we're still waiting for them to return to their boat.  They are still pretty close so we are keeping an eye on them to make sure our danforth holds.  We are hoping they will return our anchor plus our anchor rental fee: a six pack of beer. 

Where we are:
Location=Ensenada Honda, Culebra, PR
Lat=18 18.455
Lon=65 17.935