Enso sail

It happened while I was in the shower. There was a lot of thumping footsteps and the port engine turned on. As we’d all taken showers and we were anchored for the night it had to mean something was wrong. 

Took me 2 tries to get to the saloon with clothes on. I threw on a dress I had hung on the rail and dashed up to see if I could help. 

Everyone was busy—Bree and Jon were pulling up the anchor, Simon was steering us away from the boats crowding our stern. I could hear yelling from other boats in the anchorage but I didn’t think about getting on the radio until the next morning. 

It was very dark, windy and raining hard. We had only a few lights on so we’d still have some night vision so I grabbed a spotlight to light up the closest boats to show where they were. Jon and Bree got the anchor up and Simon headed us to clear space with the chart plotter. Unfortunately the big rock pile in the anchorage wasn’t on the chart but Simon remembered where it was. He’d bookmarked his tablet with alternate anchoring options which was brilliant! He had to get us into the wind (and rain) to line us up to drop anchor again. We weren’t using the headsets as we didn’t have time and we weren’t sure they were waterproof so I stood on the rail beside Simon and relayed information to and from Bree and Jon for anchoring. It was cold, dark, windy and very wet. They got the anchor down, bridle on, and we waited to see if it had set. There was discussion on whether to back up and test it or set an anchor watch. I voted for testing and we ended up dragging again, so bridle off, anchor up again and off to a different spot. That time there was a plastic bag stuck on the anchor that could’ve kept it from setting. 

Next spot they wore headsets; Bree wore her raincoat hood over hers and the set was much less dramatic. I tried to take photos which were of very questionable quality but under the circumstances… The engine decided it was a good time to put a notice out so we could have a bit more panic time but Simon went down and checked them and couldn’t find anything wrong. We waited. 

After a while we turned the engines back on and pulled on the anchor. It set this time. Most everyone sat in the saloon and talked it out; I retired and slept. I wrote this the next morning, trying to convey some of the contained panic and excitement and confusion and control that occurred in less than an hour on a dark and stormy night off the coast of a foreign shore. 
Dana