Points East Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 1077
Portsmouth, NH 03802-1077
1-888-778-5790
publisher@pointseast.com







There's a little saying ...

By Tom Wilson and Barbara O'Donnell
s/v Perspective
Boston Harbor

For Points East


Published September, 2002

How does it go? "My wife and I are very conservative sailors, so in choosing the anchorage for the night we carefully assessed a small area off Grape Island in Hingham, Mass. This was just the beginning of our summer exploration, and it is an area very familiar to us.

Carefully calculating the tide, we dropped the hook. It grabbed in the mud right away. Observing the depth gauge and walking up and down the deck with that keen sailor's eye, I alone decided this was not the spot.

"We need to move her 100 feet west," I proclaimed. So Barabra went forward and retrieved the rode as I inched Perspective to that magic spot that I knew was "right over there".

The anchor grabbed hard again. Ah, life is good! This had to be perfection. The tide turned We enjoyed dinner and retired for the night.

I started awake at 4:40 a.m., noting the boat was absolutely still. Soon she started to heel to starboard, which woke Barbara. It went on and on until I thought Perspective would never right herself.

After dinghying ashore, I tried to convince others that I was in control. "Just need to check the through hulls," I said.

Now how does that go? Oh yeah, "If you haven't been..."

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