Anchoring
So, who said we were finished with dragging anchors and stuff? Travelling south we decided to stop off in a recommended anchorage for the night. Note, recommended!! By the guide books as well as marked on the chart. The anchorage was called Five Fathom Creek. Well, a creek it certainly was but I can’t fathom out why it was called Five Fathom Creek. A fathom is a unit of depth measurement equalling 6 feet (~ 2m). So 5 fathoms should be 30 feet – right? Yeah right!! it was probably only 5 fathoms wide!
Anyway, dropped the hook (anchor) and tried to get it to set – no luck, it wouldn’t hold. Tried again, and again, and again and – you guessed it – again!! All in the same creek but it just kept dragging. That’s no good. So, what to do? I know, move out of the creek and anchor slap bang on the edge of a small commercial channel 
Hook held well but there was some tension about whether we were in the way of the commercial shrimp boats.
Well, not to worry says I, they will just pass us by. The Admiral was a bit disbelieving of this statement but soon 2 shrimp boats went by giving us a wide berth.
Also set the anchor alarm on the chartplotter – first time I’ve used this feature but with the current flowing first in one direction and then the other, I wanted to make sure that we would stay put when the boat swung around with the tidal current. It did
I slept very peacefully!!
Sunrise makes it worthwhile
Davits
So how long does it take to install 2 dinghy davits? Simple really.. Drill 16 holes and attach parts and insert and tighten bolts. An hour or so…… maybe. In fact it took the whole day. First, to drill the holes I had to remove some perspex covering and then cut a hole – big enough for my hand to fit in – through 3/4 cm fibreglass. Oops, don’t have a saw!! so drill a hundred holes around the perimeter and then use a hack saw to cut through the rest – 2 hours!
Then attach upright support – easy enough. Now attach foot. To do this must lie down on swim platform, take off jumper – it’s freezing cold at the moment – stretch one arm underneath swim platform and other on top and try to fit 4 bolts through bracket, swim platform, backing piece, backing plate, washer and then try to attach nut with spanner! All the time trying not to let anything drop into the water and without being able to see underneath swim platform which is just 4 inches above wthe water. Two hours. Then discover that the bolts are too short and must use the ones previously used for the support bracket – so undo those and refit with shorter bolts. Back to swim platform again. By now, fingers are totally numb. Hope I don’t lose spanner into water…..
Finally success. Now to do the same all over again with the second davit…….
Base support
Upright support
In between all this, chat to everyone who notices the NZ flag. Of course that’s everyone and there are many as we are tied to the fuel dock. Imagine going to the petrol station and chatting to everyone who stops to fill up his car:)
So, whole day affair but success and nothing lost to King Neptune – although it may seem I am kneeling before him
Installing davit supports
