As I wrote yesterday, my vacation was cut short but it was too hot! We hung on the hook in Block Island for a few days, because it was 5-10 degrees cooler than the mainland and my dog loves the beach.

Being at anchor in BI usually results in a story or two, and this was no exception.

We were anchored off the dinghy beach SW of Breezy Point. Had two interesting episodes:

1) It was blowing 20-25+ and a 34' trimaran was anchored nearby with his "screacher" (spin/reacher) up, sailing back and forth at anchor like crazy (no bridle, and nylon line -- probably 3/8 or 1/2 inch ). With all that windage forward that's no surprise. The wind was rising and eventually the upper 2/3 of the screacher (on a continuous line furler) unfurl in the howling wind and that starts a racket of flapping sail. Dinghy is tied but nobody aboard. I call harbor patrol and tell him what's going on, and that I'm going to assist, he says he's on the way. I get there and 3 other good Samaritans also arrive by dinghy, except they have no clue how to get the sail under control, say so, and leave when they see me take charge because the boat is shaking and mast is pumping. I start looking for the right halyard clutch to drop it to deck. I find the screacher halyard rope clutch but it doesn't drop (must be jammed or upper swivel hooked on something else aloft). I try the spinnaker halyard rope clutch in case it's mislabeled, it wasn't. Harbormaster arrives and so does the pump out boat, one of them starts to look for a way to release the bottom of the sail, and I yell DON'T YOU DARE RELEASE THE BOTTOM! Meanwhile all hell is still breaking loose aloft and the boat is straining at the rode while fighting to bear off into a run, with the harbormaster and pumpout boat all tied on as a 3-boat raft-up. I glance at the downwind power boaters who are sitting on their bows as spectators and am amazed not one of them is preparing to get the hell out of the way in the likely event this tri breaks out its anchor. Since the sail won't come down (something jammed aloft) I resort to plan B which is to wind the furler (twisting the luff into a spiral, but who cares at this point the sail's going to shred if I don't do something). Am able to get it wound up and under control.

Later near dusk the couple who own the boat returned and I went over to tell them what happened. They were very thankful and said it was a new sail, which of course cost thousands $. They said they worried about their decision to leave it up and they commented that they had noticed how stable my boat sits anchored to the bridle. I explained how mine is rigged if they want to do something similar. They said they were deploying a second anchor and I told them "no need, it held through the runaway screacher episode with two other boats rafted -- you are staying put". They did it anyway, among other boats that were anchored to a single anchor. They worked at getting the screacher down, and in the morning I noticed they had accomplished that.

2) Next morning we were preparing to get underway. A power boat had anchored after us upwind and slightly to one side. He was sailing back and forth over my anchor, and when it swung close it was within one boat length directly ahead of my bow. It was still blowing 20k+ and I knew the couple were awake because the lady was out on the aft deck earlier smoking a cigarette. I yelled "Ahoy boatname" and the skipper came out in his "nature suit" (holding his bathing trunks in front of his chest). He appeared to be in his late sixties and was quite obese. His wife then appeared in a skimpy negligée that didn't cover enough on the bottom, and she also would benefit if she shed some pounds . TMI! My wife and I had a laugh about that. They agreed to shorten scope while we got underway, and as we're taking in our rode I hear all hell break loose from a sail flapping about 100 yards away.... the tri's screacher was on the loose again!

We got underway laving the fate of the tri to its owners, and had our best sail of our vacation trip in a SW 20 knot wind as we reached to the NW into Fishers Island Sound.

BTW -- if you have $130,000 per week as pocket change you can anchor in Salt Pond on this boat, and the hot weather won't bother you.