Mont Louis to Cloridorme

What a difference a day makes!!  During the night the winds picked up from the SE to about 20 knots, so after letting out more chain at about 2:00 in the morning, we weren't sleeping all that well, so decided to get going at about 5:30am.  It is actually light about 4:00 to 4:30, so at least we weren't in the dark, and it was another sunny day!  George had let out a floating anchor marker when we dropped the anchor, so we wanted to collect that as we brought up the anchor, as we did not have floating line, so were worried that the line might get caught around the shaft or propellor with all the wind.  It was difficult keeping the boat in to the wind in order to do both those jobs, but we were managing okay.  We got the marker on board, but of course the other end was attached to the anchor, so the line still a concern as we continued to raise the anchor, when suddenly we saw coming up out of the depths, firmly entwined in our chain and anchor marker line a HUGE  forked (or was that a 'forkin'?) branch!!!!  What the...???  Now we were in a pickle!  We weren't drifting yet, but we knew we were on borrowed time as far as that went with the winds at 20 knots, and although we had some room, there was a huge abandoned breakwater down wind of us......AND that branch was not coming off easily.  It was way too big to break or cut and we had left our saw at home..... I left my post at the helm and went to help George with the whole tree, anchor line, chain mess. As we were struggling to loosen the line in order to free the branch, we both noticed that we were, now, drifting toward the breakwater.  George ran back to the helm and held her steady in to the wind, while I cut the anchor marker line.  This freed the tension so I could unwind the line from around the branch although it was also trapped between the anchor chain and the tree, so had to yank on the chain to get it right off.  Finally it was off and I brought it on board, while the rest of the line sank to the bottom.  Now the branch was only wrapped around the chain, but stuck where it forked off.  As the chain tightened, the branch was jammed up against our second anchor at the bow!  I gave it a couple of hard kicks which popped it off, then pulled it around the chain and watched it sink back into the depths!!!  We then finished pulling up the chain (other end of anchor marker line still attached!) and headed out of our 'safe' harbour to where there was some sea room!  All that before our first coffee!!!

Before the whole anchor drama began, we had decided to pre-reef the sail, which was a good idea, as it continued to blow the 20 knots all morning, with gusts to 25-27, so we had a good sail to Cloridorme, averaging 7 knots.  The wind was supposed to die down about noon, but it didn't, so we came in to the tiny harbour of Cloridorme under high winds.  Fortunately, there was one spot left on the very tiny wharf for visitors, so we swung Wyvern around into the wind and tied down for the night!

Cloridorme is a tiny fishing village, with a little harbour surrounded by shale hills and cliffs.  By late afternoon the wind finally died down and the sun came out (it had disappeared and started to rain a little once we were tied up) so we enjoyed a little walk before having supper.

Chic-Choc mountains and valleys!

visitor's wharf in Cloridorme

harbour of Cloridorme

shale cliffs

inter-tidal zone