Okay, here's what happened: Heron's anchor clutch wasn't working right and began slipping, which sent close to 300 feet and over 1000 pounds of chain freewheeling over the bow.
(A nightmare in the small cove where we were attempting to anchor and stern tie between other boats off Hardy Island.) Kim took the helm while Jeff dealt with the windlass... the top image is a photo of
Heron's futile trail as we first lost, then tried to recover chain that had become badly stuck around rocks on the bottom.
Grateful not to have lost any fingers or toes, we knew we had an unsure anchorage and decided to let the rest of the chain go over with a marker buoy tied to it. Having a plan, we retreated to a marina for the night, and hired a terrific diver the next morning, Andy. Andy found that in all our maneuvering we'd dragged the chain under a boulder the size of a car. Jeff and Andy were finally able to retrieve the anchor and about half of the chain... This was a minor miracle, and only possible as Jeff happened to have a pair of heavy-duty bolt-cutters aboard (letting us keep the saved part and let go the rest). Here is Jeff posing with the monster cutters, which were able to cut through 3/8" chain with relative ease...
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