I always knew humility about anchoring was more becoming than certainty

[charles_reed]

For the 2nd time in about 238 deployments the Mantus dragged this morning.
NE 5/6 off the Old Coal Yard in Ormos Ak Nik, N Kea. 6.8m water 35mchain and 6m textile. Dug in 24 hours previously @ 2000rpm for 50".
When I recovered it I got a large Lidl bag of monofilament line and about 8kg of mixed mud and weed (which took quite a lot of cleaning off).
Now lying to the old Danforth and the re-set Mantus @ 30 degrees.
We're threatened with N 5-6 until next Thursday, but may have a drop to 4 Monday nightfall to Tuesday dawn. looks like a scuttle up the Evia Channel to get back to Eleftheres.

 

[Tony Cross]

I wondered where that bag had gone, can you post it to me please?

 

[GHA]

2d or 3rd time with a new spade 25 I was most disappointed when it dragged and wouldn't set, back up and a surprisingly small bit of cloth wrapped was around the point. Set with a bang once that was off.

 

[vyv_cox]

Funny thing, a couple of years ago we had a very similar experience in Alinda, Leros. Anchored fine all night, dragged at 0600 in less wind than the previous 8 hours. Recovered the anchor with a bundle of monofilament line wrapped around it, filled a bin bag when freed.

 

[jaba]

Same (monofilament) happened to me with a Rocna. Bora wind in Croatia in an otherwise protected bay. I dragged at night and saved the boat by the skin of my teeth... (Or rather because a slovenian mobo was between me and the reef)

 

[Mistroma]

Brings to mind a time many years ago somewhere in the Argolic gulf. Pilot said something about holding being bad in some places so I put out plenty of extra chain when reversing to the quay. Anchor seemed to bite but started dragging as we reversed to tension the lines, so I lifted the anchor above the bottom and re-laid with all remaining chain. Same result, so I moved along to a different part of the quay. No improvement at all and when I lifted the anchor fully I found it was sitting comletely inside a builders bucket. Lesson learned, always lift the anchor enough to check it isn't fouled.

Rattled anchor chain back out and reversed again to find it wouldn't bite at all so returned to first part of the quay and put all chain out again. I could see that the anchor was clear while it was 2-3 metres down but finally decided to bring it back up fully for closer inspection. Problem solved, the repeated lifting and laying had pulled the square plastic insert from the hawse pipe. This meant that it was free to fall down over the shaft and jam the flukes in one position. You'd think that this would give a 50:50 chance of them pointing down but I think that it always glided down with the flukes uppermost. So 100% chance of it dragging along the bottom with the flukes pointing up away frm the bottom. Second lesson learned, bring the anchor right up for inspection if it has any moving parts.

I was glad when the anchor did finally dig in after about 6 attempts. Never made such a bad job of it since but I'm certain it will happen at some point no matter what I do.

Currently sitting with an onshore SW 3-4 with gusts with lightning and pouring rain. All forecasts, gribs etc. said light NE or E. At least we have a backup only 2 nm away if the wind increases (and backup to backup a further 3 nm). Fingers crossed that the wind drops as suddenly as it switched direction.

 

[Mistroma]

Duplicate

 

[geem]

We had a dragging situation last winter in Falmouth harbour, Antigua. Only blowing about 17kts but we seemed to be slowing dragging. We were about to turn in for the night and had just had a shower so was nice and clean. We pulled the anchor up to find we had a two foot diameter piece of coral jammed solid in the Spade anchor. I had to get in the rib with a hammer and slowly smash the coral away from the pointy end so I could remove it. Shards of coral were flying everywhere. Eventually it came off with a big splash and a round of applause from our neighbouring yachts. I was covered in salty coral bits so after we re-anchored it was back in the shower. The reef wasn't marked on any chart and was right in the middle of the mooring field.

 

[charles_reed]

I wondered where that bag had gone, can you post it to me please?

Ditched in Voukari, 3rd dustbin from the left - you're most welcome to it!!!

 

[macd]

Currently sitting with an onshore SW 3-4 with gusts with lightning and pouring rain. All forecasts, gribs etc. said light NE or E.

Not directly related to dragging, Mistroma, but you might appreciate this real-time lightning map I recently stumbled upon: http://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php?map=13

It shows, as nothing else can, what Thor might be sending your way. Assuming you're still in Sardinia, 'your' thunderstorms seem now to be just north of Palermo.

Incidentally, gribs won't overtly forecast lightning and all that goes with it, but can identify high levels of vertical instability which typically accompany it: look for high CAPE values, especially anything over 1000. (Thanks, Frank Singleton.)

 

[TonyMS]

Thanks for the pointer on CAPE. Frank's CAPE URL is http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Cape.

You can also get CAPE charts using PocketGrib.

TonyMS

 

[Sybarite]

.............. looks like a scuttle up the Evia Channel to get back to Eleftheres.

Perhaps you should have stayed here and not eleftheres?

 

[rivonia]

The best is a ROCNA