Next to Me left early to meet friends at Blind River. We got moving slowly and moved the boat to Eagle Island. This spot had been recommend by “Minnehaha”. As we approached the anchorage we were struck by how much different it was than the Benjamin’s, just a mile away as the crow flys. Here the Island was covered with trees with very little exposed rock above the water. Very well protected except for an East wind. The forecast was for light west winds.
We had our pick of places to anchor, as no one else was here. There was one small cruiser, 30 ft +\-, coming in behind us. We dropped the anchor with our trip line and settled in for a lazy day. That meant after lunch it was time for a nap. I was awakened by the dreaded Anchor Dragging Alarm. I rushed to the pilot house where the chart plotter showed we were still in the circle (The anchor alarm puts a circle around the boat from GPS information), and the float on the trip line was about 10 feet off the bow. The only way I could get the “boat drifting message” to go away was to turn off the Alarm System. Normally I can just acknowledge the alarm and adjust the size of the alarm circle to allow for the distance between setting the alarm and the anchor setting. Well when you turn off the Alarm System the chart plotter no longer has a record of where you told it the anchor is. This is such a poor feature of our chart plotter and most I have seen. It would be nice to simply select the radius of a circle then move it around to where you want it on the screen. I’m sure it will be available one day. Well because I had put in the trip line I knew the location of the anchor. The float on the trip line was about 10 feet off the bow so I just set the alarm and adjusted the radius. It was close enough. The rest of the day and night had no alarms.
Trip line: A line attached to the back of the anchor so that if the anchor gets stuck, under a rock or debris, you can use it to put the anchor loose. The other end of the Trip line is connected to a float. The length of the trip line is adjusted before you drop the hook to the depth of the water.
We put the dinghy in the water and went around the island. When we got back we decided to wash the boat. Then we just relaxed. Charlotte read and I watched Independence day again. I didnt take many pictures so I have included the sunrise at Eagle the next morning.
