Tying Up to Boulders on S Benjamin Islands

We left Spanish early the next morning and made our way through Little Detroit, a channel so narrow it’s customary to make a “Securité. Securité. Securité.” call to announce your intentions so boaters, on the other side of the channel, can stand clear. You wouldn’t want to be passed by a speeding boat and veer off the center of the channel onto those boulders lurking below the water.

S Benjamin Islands – Mooring Cove Available for Kismet.

We had one of those magically calm cruising days for the short 12-mile run (approx.) to our first scheduled anchorage at South Benjamin where we hoped to find a well-protected spot snuggled up to a boulder or two. It sounds strange, but a river has formed between the boulders/islands in S Benjamin Islands where natural mooring coves have formed. We’ve always wanted to tie up in this area, but all our previous boats have had too deep of a draft for the spots available in that channel. As luck would have it there was one prime spot available this morning when we arrived at South Benjamin, and our Ranger Tug, Kismet, fit very nicely into it. Time to relax and enjoy the start of our North Channel adventure. But first, we need to secure the boat to those rocks.

The last time we used our long stern anchor line was when we cruised Lake Powell. Some of that red Arizona dirt is still clinging to that line as we get it ready to use.

Tying to shore was a little bit of a project in this cove. First, we dropped anchor at the mouth of the cove, drew back, then tied both starboard and port sides to shore with our stern tie line.

Once settled… a panoramic view of our anchorage tonight (above).