We anchored out this past weekend in the company of our good friends Lynda and Chris. The original plan was to sail over to the Beauharnois locks on the St-Lawrence Seaway, and ascend up to Lac St-Francois for weekend of gunk-holing. Equipment issues on both our Rêverie and Drifter, Lynda’s and Chris’ Tanzer 26, caused us to reconsider our plans. Having to change the heads on both boats an hour before departure did not encourage us to wander too far from home.

Our revised plan was to sail, or motor, over to our usual anchoring spot in the Grande Anse on the east side of Ile Perrot. This is a large bay with good holding that offers good protection from the prevailing west wind, as well as some shelter from the south and north winds.

We left around 6 pm and motored over to the anchorage as the wind had died out and we wanted to get set for rafting up together and a late dinner and drinks. Our thirty year-old motor, a 7.5 hp Yanmar 1GM diesel, performed well during the trip to the anchorage. The previous owner took good care of this motor. It certainly neither looks nor performs like an old motor. I plan to continue taking good care of this baby. To that end, I read Nigel Calder’s excellent Marine Diesel Engines over the winter and plan to take a marine diesel maintenance course this fall. There will be more on my thoughts about Diesel engines and the course in upcoming posts.

Our anchoring adventure took a turn for the worse when Lynda was injured while playing out the anchor line. She suffered a painful injury to her hand when it was caught in the rode. She bravely weathered the pain and with the help of applied ice and imbibed wine, was able to enjoy the lovely evening on the lake.

After rafting up without incident, we had a pleasant evening of good food from the barbecue and pre-prepared from the kitchens of Vi and Lynda, aboard Drifter. As usual some wine was spilled, which I was able to pin on Lynda given her degraded dexterity. The Grande Anse offers a wonderful view of Montreal in the distance, and the expanse of Lac St-Louis, which we enjoyed while munching on goodies and sipping wine we managed to keep in our glasses and away from the thirsty deck.

Our post prandial slumber was interrupted when Vi detected a new noise from her berth in the forecastle. She called back to me to report a “new noise.” I went up on deck to investigate and found that our anchor line was tangled with Drifter’s. Chris also came up on deck at this point, and together we got them untangled. I was cold up on deck at three am, and the deck was slippery. It took several tries to get the boats untangled and Vi also assisted with fendering while Chris and I concentrated on the lines. It was difficult to get back to sleep afterwards as the anchorage was a bit rolly and our adrenaline levels were elevated.

The next morning we slept later than is usual while at anchor. We enjoyed a simple breakfast of oatmeal, toast, marmalade, fruit and tea prepared in our boat’s small but usable galley.

After breakfast, we once again untangled the anchor rodes and weighed anchor. The sail back to the club was very pleasant. Winds were mostly light, but with Vi at the helm and me on the sheets, we manage to coax enough speed to move along at around 3.5 knots. While the wind did vary in both speed and direction, we only had one big gust that knocked us on our ear and forced us to crash tack, as the wind came around from the opposite side.

We continued to have head issues while at anchor, which required more work and additional outlay of funds, but I will cover that in another post.