Monday, August 18 — Today there was no rain in forecast, but it was ominous outside. It was 73-degrees Fahrenheit, a strong, cool wind and very grey skies. Eric decided it was a good day to redo the chain markers. Over the years, we’ve tried an assortment of ways to try to mark the chain at every 50-feet so that we knew exactly how much chain was out. We started with paint, which flaked off quickly. We tried plastic inserts next, but they popped out pretty fast. We then tried colored zip ties and colored tapes, but they tended to break and fall off after a while.

A while ago, Eric had found some plastic inserts that screwed in, and he was hopeful that the screw would mean they would stay in place and not pop out. We hadn’t put them in yet because we needed the right kind of dock – one with a pole at the end that could handle the weight and one long enough to stretch the chain all the way out. This was the spot. We carefully lowered the anchor and placed it on the dock. Then we let out all the chain, winding it up and down the length of the finger.