Nightmare

One of my worst nightmares is to have found a beautiful anchorage in a remote location.  You go ashore for a bit and return and the boat has drifted off...no where to be found.  All your gear, boat and dream is gone.  This just happened to a French cruiser in the Bahamas.  I found his story over at Cruiser Forums which you should check out. 

I checked in this afternoon at West-End. Since I could not start my engine I anchored off the beach a mile South of the channel. Everything was seemingly fine, forty feet of chain and maybe fifteen of nylon rode, shallow water. Out of the customs office I checked on the boat, I could see the mast over the jetty. I had a late lunch, checked again, no problem. At six or six thirty after using my computer to get on the Internet it was time to head out to the boat on my dinghy. Dagny wasn't there! I found a guy on his boat with a radar. He could see nothing, not a blimp. Hard to spot a sailboat. Three guys on a motorboat offered to go look with me. We spent three hours looking around in the direction of the drift, nothing. I am stranded in West-End with nothing but the clothes on my back and my computer bag. They're letting me sleep in the gym tonight, no idea about tomorrow. Needless to say I am devastated, numb, incredulous.


More chain, a heavier anchor and a good back down to set the anchor may have helped.  I hope he can locate the boat!  Good luck Gil.