Anchor watch ?

[jbweston]

I often set my anchor watch app, mainly to see how the boat has moved around during the night.
If there is a bit of a blow and if it causes me to wake up, I will get up and have a pee then go and have a look around. Whether I can see much depends if there's a moon and which torch I take!
As I see it, there appears to be two camps on this thread, those that go away for longish periods and anchor as a norm and those that manage to get away for a weekend and have to anchor in crowded areas, more as an adventure and a change from being in a marina. Which camp you are in will vastly change your attitude to the experience.

I think you are right about that.

Years ago, there were fewer boats around, not so many marinas and sailing yachts were much less manoeuvrable, so mooring in harbour on piles or alongside was a bigger deal for the less experienced, so anchoring was very frequent and usual to the point that even beginners learned to treat it as the norm. Nowadays day sailors start out going into marinas as the norm (more marinas, boats more manoeuvrable, and some need shorepower), and sometimes don't get comfortable and competent at anchoring.

I say 'sometimes' because obviously some beginners are very competent at anchoring and are used to it, but it isn't as routine as it used to be. The point is not that the Old Days were better (might have been, might not have been), but that anchoring is not now so frequently done. So I can see that in Osborne or Studland Bays, you might find yourself next to someone who isn't as expereinced as you'd like.

I'm not claiming to be any great expert but I like to anchor beacuse I'm usually single- or short-handed and it's so much less fuss (no warps and fenders and wondering if the berth's wide/deep enough and whether the Finns/Germans/Poles/Brits next door are into drunken midnight shanty-singing to an accordion accompaniment).