Don’t Leave Me

Saturday July 28th – Today we are leaving the marina headed up Toba Inlet. Toba runs inland about 22 miles with steep forested walls, waterfalls and snowcapped peaks. Its remote, nothing around except the occasional logging camp. Todd and I were hoping to find a place to anchor for the night somewhere up the inlet, but everyone said it’s not a good idea due to sudden winds that can come up and poor anchorages.

The cruise was incredible! With almost no other boats, it felt like you were really in the wild, and we were. Multiple waterfalls, sheer cliffs, and water that was so turquoise it felt like you were in some other land.  Defiantly one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.

About 3/4s of the way up we found a large exposed rock face with a waterfall. I thought it would be a great place to have lunch, so I tried anchoring in 140’ of water just in front of the falls then backing our stern up to the rock face. With about 250’ of anchor chain out and a line to shore off our stern, we set the hook. Todd tied up alongside us and we had a great lunch watching the falls just off our stern.

At some point we just decided to stay the night. The kids messed around in the waterfall pools panning for gold (I think they may have even found some) and we sat on the back deck watching and listening to the falls. It was fun to be so remote, we never even saw another boat after we anchored. Lilly, Todd and Tami’s dog, even thought it was a remote location. Skylar and Zach dropped her off on shore to poop then took the dinghy to the other side of the falls to fix the shore line. She did what was asked, then got really nervous about the dinghy not being there to pick her up. She looked like she was going to jump in and swim back to the boat, but Todd and Tami said no way, she would never do that. Sure enough, she got real nervous and lept into the water swimming back to the mothership as fast as she could just to make sure she was not left behind. We all laughed and cheered her on!

We had an amazing evening all alone in the wilderness.

(Another side story)
I gotta say my friend Todd is a smart dude. He knows more about boats and boating (and a lot of other things) then anyone I know! We have a lot of fun boating together every summer and I have learned so much about boating from him, but this may not have been one of his better decisions.

So, the story goes, I anchor as stated above in Toba Inlet. Todd ties up to me, then decides that if we are going to stay the night he should probably put out an anchor as well. Smart thing to do, except that his anchor markers that tell him how much chain he has out were all out of whack, or at least it seemed that way at the time. After pulling back on the anchor and tying back off to me it became evident that the anchor was not fully deployed as intended.

A little frustrated, he decides that rather than untie the boat again and re-anchor, he would take the anchor out on the dinghy (still connected via chain to the big boat) and drop it in the water. It’s a great thought but an anchor and 200’ or so of chain weighs a LOT! The anchor dropped in the dinghy no problem, Zach let the chain out as Todd motored out away from the boat. With the dinghy in the right spot and all the chain out, Todd and all his strength lifted the anchor out of the dinghy, then chucked (tried to) it off the side of the boat. It almost made it except for that darn pointy end of the anchor just barley snagged on the inflatable side ripping a huge gash in the side of the boat!

With a look of Ohhhhh…. Sh*t, what did I just do on his face, he tries to lift the anchor off without success. In defeat he motors the dinghy back to the big boat and lifts the anchor off with the windless. Luckily the dinghy is made up of many air chambers so only one was popped. We made due with one anchor that night.  Wont do that again!