Who’s Driving This Thing

So far, I’ve gotten a lot of experience driving Exodus around anchorages.  Tim and I usually swap roles between driving and working the anchor so that we both stay sharp at both tasks, but if we err one way or the other, it would be for me to do the driving so that I can continue to build confidence.  Being a catamaran we have a lot more maneuverability than most boats, what with two engines and all, but it’s still a large vessel that is greatly affected by wind and currents.  What I learned at Bahia San Nicolas is that anchoring in 20 kts of wind is A LOT harder than 10.  As I worked the engine controls to keep us pointed into the wind I overcorrected and between the force from the engine thrust and a wind gust that came up we got into an unstable oscillation and just kept going around.  Not good when you’ve got an anchor halfway deployed and anchor chain rubbing one of the hulls.

So, I don’t do that anymore.  I make smaller adjustments, even when it seems like initially, it’s not taking effect.