Bonnie (and Buggy) Bonner Bay

This was just a short weekend trip, out on Saturday and back on Sunday. We sailed almost all the way there--out Broad Creek, down the Neuse River, up the Bay River then into Bonner Bay, even though at times we were only traveling at 2 knots.

The Bay is mostly surrounded by marshlands, with some trees to the east and south. On our previous trip to this bay, there was a strong northerly, while this time we expected a weak southerly. It is a good anchorage for either condition. Except for the holding on the bottom, but more on that later. After two tries, we got the anchor set, inflated the kayak and Abby and I took off exploring the marsh.

From the anchorage, we paddled into a smaller bay. The grass around the edge are about 3 feet high, and with the water still up from the non-storm last week, the grass appears to be floating. Abby found a small canal, and we first thought we should paddle backwards up the canal as it was too small to turn around. We immediately realized two things (1) we can't kayak backwards and (2)we can GO backwards in a kayak by just...turning around! We paddled as far as we could, then stood up in the kayak to see that we were surrounded by pale yellow grass, with the mast to our north seemingly sticking up right out of the grass.

And then the mosquitos found us. We paddled as fast as we could down the canal, out the small bay, across the big bay, tied up to the stanchion, climbed the ladder and rushed inside to find the insect repellent. The mosquitos came out in force just before sunset and we retreated to the cabin for dessert.

The next morning was a work time--Bob worked on the forward running lights, I worked on the binnacle cover, Abby polished some stainless, then some of the boat hull. Abby and Bob went on another kayak exploration, and when they returned we prepared to leave.

Bob came up from below, took a quick look around and shouted, "we're dragging". He started the engine and put it in forward and slowly moved back to the center of the channel. We had dragged about 200 yards. When Bob went forward to pull up the anchor, he said there was no resistance at all.

We hypothesize that when the wind shifted to come from the east (a direction it was NOT forecast to come from) and picked up to 15+ knots, the anchor turned and was unable to reset in the grassy bottom. The evidence for the grassy bottom was (1) the two tries to set the anchor in the first place, and (2) the occassional blanks from the depth sounder. No harm done, but we will be more cautious (and maybe even dive the anchor) if we stay here again.