This was bound to be a nerve wracking experience. It was a guarantee the area would be packed with other boats at anchor. I never tried anchoring in my previous boat, Reel Fun. Well, once when I beached it to fix the outboard my first time out.
We headed out early so we could get a decent spot. I should have left earlier though. Thayer's Landing is on a river which is subject to a 10' tidal swing. It's best to leave an hour after or before dead low tide. Once you know the channel well enough, it's no problem, but as a newbie...you can get stuck. I got stuck just after my marina and I'm sure everyone at the dock had a good laugh. I was able to back up and get going again relatively quickly, so no biggie. Brenton at Black Rock Sailing told our class we would all get grounded at some point, so best to get my first one done early with no issues!
We anchored with no issues and of course I was paranoid the whole time that I was dragging. We waited about 30 minutes for a lot of the traffic to clear before heading back to our slip. It was also the first time boating in the dark, so it was interesting sweeping the river with the flashlight to locate each channel marker.
All in all it was a success and the kids and I had fun.
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| Right before I got stuck. You can see how narrow the river gets and I hugged it too close to the channel marker. I have successfully left at low tide by staying closer to the right hand side. Luckily we didn't get stuck for long |
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| Lotta boats filing in already |
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| My anchor spot |
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| The residents in the area had decent firework shows of their own |
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