it was a dark and dreary night

It was really three dark and dreary nights in Chestertown.  I anchored out two of the nights, stayed tied to the dock for the third night.  Squalls, rain, sleet, close to freezing temperatures and high winds.

Early in the evening and again early in the morning I would light a small candle in a small brass chimney.  It certainly did not warm up the boom tent, but the glow of the tiny flame seemed to make the evenings and mornings more comfortable.

The first night anchored out was cool and grey, with a fast moving squall that came through just after I anchored near the mouth of Radcliffe Creek just a few hundred yards down the shore from Chestertown.  That was the nicest of the evenings.

The second evening, after the fireworks, the rain began to fall.  Rain, and eventually a wet snow and then sleet, continued to fall for about the next thirty hours.  High winds filled in later that evening.  In the early morning hours severe gusts caused our anchors - a navy style anchor and a mushroom anchor - to break free from the muddy bottom.  Spartina was pushed across the mouth of the creek.

I woke up to find us 50 yards from the riprap-lined shore, a quick look at landmarks showed we were moving steadily closer to the rocks.  I put out a second anchor, jammed the sleeping gear and boom tent under the foredeck and motored away under full throttle, all in a pouring, cold rain.  It was not a fun morning.

I motored up the river in the lee of the marina docks.  At one point I turned our onto the main river and was quickly turned back by waves and wind, I could not keep the bow pointed into the wind.  I did get to a dock on the west end of marina and was able to tie up and regroup there.

The last night I spent tied to the dock listening to the sleet bounce off the boom tent.  I found myself warm and comfortable inside my sleeping bag inside the bivy under the boom tent.  I had a good night's sleep, waking up now and then to adjust the dock lines to deal with an unusually high tide.  There was ice on the tent in the morning.

I give a lot of credit to my new icebreaker thermals and the exped air pillow for keeping me comfortable at night.  My thanks to Kiwibird for the advice on both.

The last morning I was glad look out the back of the tent to see blue skies.  It was about time.

steve