Lucky escape

[cannonfodder]

well i paddled out to a mark between Ilfracombe and Lee Bay around 1km off the shore, on sat 10th may. i set off early and intended to fish the slack water over the top of the tide.

The tides were dropping off of springs, but still a good 5 or so knots on the 8.3mtr tide. made it to my mark and anchored up, down tide of the rough ground about a 100 yards using speciman's dry bag anchor system, which has always worked great in the past.

I fished over the top of the tide, pulled up anchor and moved anchor for the ebb. dropped the anchor and started fishing. about 3/4, of an hour after the top of the tide, the water started to run and i noticed, while keeping lookout for the skippers that love to flood you with their wake, that my dry bag and marker buoy was being pulled under the water and the air was being squeezed from the dry bag because of the force of the tide, i have a 25lt bag that i always twist at least 6 times to for a seal.

 

Anyway's i though id call it a day after a couple of dog fish and a 10lb strap ell so stowed all my gear and then set about getting the anchor in, i pulled the bag and rope in which by this time was completely submerged, but i knew the tide was ebbing and i wasn't too concerned that i would be pulled to the bottom, so i disconnected my divers reel from the quick release rope and started to heave allowing the anchor line to flow down tide so it couldn't snag me up and pull me under if the worst happened, my anchor had either buried in deep or had snagged as it wouldn't budge an inch.

 

I put my foot up towards the front of my yak so i could pull and keep my bow into the flow and was pulling with the hope of the anchor snag release, giving out so it would pull out upside down. But as i gave it a huge tug the line slipped from around my foot cam down the side of the boat and put me broadside to the tide and started to flip my yak, i quickly shifted my weight to the opposite side and just managed to save myself from a dunking, but as i compiled myself i noticed that i had wrapped the anchor rope around my hands to stop any slipping. After a pause and several colourful words at my stupidity i cut the line.

 

Edited May 14, 2008 by cannonfodder

[SpeciMan]

Glad you made it back safely Cannonfodder. For general fishing I wouldn't recommend anchoring in much more than a 2knot tide; 3knot tides are the maximum for me. Small pot buoys will be dragged under in a 5 knot tide - it's a shame the dry bag started to fill although it could act as an indicatior that its time to move.

 

I put a nick in the mini cable tie I use on the anchor making it much easier to break out if its stuck.

 

When retrieving the anchor I sometimes keep the quick release line in the cleat, pull the kayak up to the buoy & pull on the main anchor line to see if she's stuck. If I think the anchor is stuck/hard work to break out I'll paddle up tide and then try again. A 5 knot tide is very hard to paddle against (slower yaks won't be able to make progress).

 

Some of the guys are now using modifiied cleats near the front of the yak to wrap the anchor line around whilst pulling. I may fit something similar to mine.