A Tale, Quickly Told...

...but living it took a while, I can tell you!

This is Disappointment Cove (I wonder why they call it that?), in Port Pegasus, Stewart Island.  The fishermen call it Peacehaven.  I'm rowing out lines to tie us into the shore prior to a forecast blow.  It's a bit embarrassing now to think how long I was messing around with the lines, getting the boat...

...in exactly the wrong place.  The wind shifted, the tide went out, and we found ourselves high and dry in the middle of the night.  All of our efforts to get afloat were fruitless.  And, to make things much worse, the keel was firmly stuck in mud, and we were slowly toppling over towards the deeper water right next to us.  It seemed possible that we might settle wrong-way-up and downflood the boat.

It seemed like such a possibility that we packed the dinghy against the eventuality of abandoning ship and called Taupo Maritime Radio so that someone in the outside world might know what was up with us.  That's the dinghy below, full of gear, tied off to the high side.

When everything was as ready as it could be I just laid down for a sleep while we waited to see what would happen.

Happily, low tide passed and the water got no higher than the side deck.  And a couple hours later we popped free on the rising tide.  In the morning there was a lot of anchor retrieving - we had put two extra hooks in the water while trying to get off.

A chain hook and a winch are a great combination for breaking out an anchor.

Our trusty folding 75-pounder, on the halyard and out of the water.

And Galactic, the next day, shifted over to deeper water!