History 5: Anchor Shackles & Who Will Crew?

Written by J.

The Rest of the month of March 2010

The next week I picked up some 1x4 to use as number boards for the Washington State registration numbers and some stick on numbers and letters. It wouldn't be the most glamorous registration board, but would work through the summer and into next year when the yearly registration would expire.

Meanwhile, what to do about crew and the shackle?

We were hoping that I could make the trip up on Saturday. We had already talked, and thought that leaving the kids behind on what could be a stressful trip would be a wise thing to do. We were also hoping that we (the boat, my crew and I) could leave earlier enough to make it all the way to Blaine, but knew that if the weather turned ugly, or something happened, we could aim for Bellingham as a back-up.

I needed crew, then. I placed a few phone calls to folks in the area and to my brother and dad - and everyone was busy with one thing or another and couldn't get away. No one could do Saturday.

L. and I were starting to wonder about what other options could be, when my Dad called and said that if we would be willing to go on Sunday, he could go then. Ok. That would work. The family could come down on Saturday, drop me off to spend the night on the boat with an air mattress (remember there are no cushions) and Dad could join me when he could. Then I could run him back down on Monday.

Ok, crew was settled. But what about this anchor shackle? I had remembered seeing another anchor like the one I had in Anacortes. I also knew that the chandlery at which I bought my anchor was a national chain. So ... if I could find a shackle to fit the bruce type anchor I'd seen in Anacortes, then I'd return the one I had. It was worth a shot.

When we arrived in Anacortes on Saturday, we had forgotten that it was the Anacortes Boat Show. There were people everywhere! It was fun to run into some friends walking down the docks and to show them our new boat!

After dropping off supplies at the boat, we went to see if the anchor I had seen was still for sale. It was. Not only that, but some shackles the store had in stock fit! I bought this anchor, plus some shackles then returned the other anchor. We were in business.

The family said good-bye and I settled down to await Dad's arrival, doing some last minute projects. It felt good to be ready to go, and to be finally moving our new boat up to home.