Lazy day anchored out

We finally got the anchor wet today! It had never been in the water before. It was a perfectly sunny and windless day, so George, Jan and I cruised a great distance -- about one mile -- to a secluded cove across the bay from us and spent the day in total quiet and calm. Wonderful!

We did have a scare on the long one-mile cruise, however. The chart showed I was in the proper channel with 7 ft of water below me. But suddenly I was hitting something! I immediately put the throttle into neutral, and then glanced at the depth guage. 2.5 ft! We had grounded! The chart was incorrect! Luckily, I was going slowly, so we barely were stuck, and the slight wind was pushing us into the deeper water. So, in about two minutes, the depth guage read 5 ft and I put it into gear and got out into even deeper water and proceeded to our cove.

I learned two lessons: 1) watch both the chart AND the depth guage when you're entering side coves or other bodies of water off the main routes, and 2) charts can be wrong. The govt agency that produces such charts asks boaters to let them know updates, so I need to contact them and point out this change since the last time they surveyed this area. They will actually take a boater's word for it and make the change in the next year's chart. I can tell them the exact longitude and latitude where it happened because of the GPS.

Once we anchored -- which, by the way, was a luxury given than you just press a button and it drops using what is called an electric windlass -- we stayed for six hours. George and Jan took the kayaks out for a long time, and I rode the bike on the trainer, up on the fly bridge. (For having a bike-themed boat name, I've been negligent about riding since I got here. I rode for the first time on Monday, a 24-mile beautiful ride here on Kent Island. There was only about 10 feet of total climbing, however. So flat! Today's ride on the trainer was only my second time in the saddle. Need to ride more!)

I took the kayak out later, while G and J read books. We had a leisurely lunch. Everything was slow and pretty and a nice day. Then I exercised my finger and the anchor came right back up. I avoided the shallow spot on the return trip and all was fine. It sure helps to have George and Jan while departing, landing, anchoring, and all else. Tomorrow we may do the same thing. We would need to return a little earlier, however, because the dinghy is getting delivered late tomorrow afternoon.