Overnight anchoring.

gravygraham

gravygraham

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One evening I'll be brave enough to drop anchor, open a Boddington's and hit the pillow. But until that day I'd be grateful of any tips regarding staying in one's intended spot - I have an anchor alarm on the gps but I'm intrigued to learn what might happen as the tidal flow reverses. Does protocol say sleep on regardless and hope you continue to hold (if you drag you'll be alerted), or is it savvy to get up every so often and check the state of play?

Graham
 
We normally arrive in time so that the boat gets the tide both ways before night nights, allowing me to sleep soundly in the knowledge that SWMBO will wake up if the alarm sounds. If the wind were to significantly increase I think that would trouble me though.
 
The level of paranioa would depend on what would happen if I were to go adrift a bit.

If the answer was "be thrown on to rocks and dashed to pieces" or "be mown down by the QMII" then I would be staying up with a book. If the answer was "gently make contact with a marshy bank" then I wouldn't be quite so concerned.

dv.
 
I was tempted here from the raggier parts of the forum by this post...
Do overcome your inhibitions about anchoring. Its great to wake up on a quiet morning and have a coffee looking out over real scenery rather than acres of white grp.

Start somewhere with known good holding and reverse down hard on the anchor. My engine is only 28hp, but I draw confidence from knowing that if I don't move with that pulling as hard as it can, then I am not likely to when the flow reverses. We also started off with lots of chain out, but are down to the more usual 3 or 4:1 now! Certainly somewhere with mud rather than rocks all round helps one sleep!

The rewards make it worth persisting. Waking up here was a high point:
<edit> you can just see the trip line - another contribution to peace of mind!</edit>
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and another thing...
Set the alarm for "swinging times". Half an hour planned wake up then go back to bed is better than not quite sleeping all night!
 
Interesting thread this, and I and Mrs 'I' are keen to do just this on our floating island sooon!

It seems that whenever we drop anchor we are either seriously ignorant with a total lack of knowledge, or seriously lucky.............or seriously good at it?

The boat never seems to move at all, and I guess, given that the boat will stay put in a bay all day whilst your on the beach as the tide comes and goes, must mean that it will stay put often for the shorter period of night whilst you sleep?

I remember hearing a well known 'Rear Admiral Fairline' saying at his recent Pirates Party, i heaved in reverse and wait for the bow to really dip down, then your not going anywhere!

If the flippion wind behaves itself, I may even pluck up the courage to do it this weekend
Jas.
 
The first time I ever anchor overnight was at the North Wales forum meet in June, when we all moored or anchored in Porth Dinllaen.

I went to bed reasonably confident that my anchor would hold, and within minutes of retiring the wind got up and the waves started slapping against the hull, which kept me awake. As I couldn't sleep I read and watched DVD's, occasionally getting up to check on my position.

Never moved an inch, despite the wind outside.

But, in the morning I was about the only one who had a tender left. Obviously my knot skills are superior to the wizened sea dogs I cruise in company with.

I don't have an anchor alarm, so I would get up every now and again to check my marks to make sure I haven't drifted and also choose my spot very carefully. On that night the weather forecast and wind predictions were next to useless.
 
As already stated once the tide has gone up and down you are most likely to be safe as long as conditions remain the same,a high water during the evening before going to bed is always going to be more reassuring than a high water during the night.You will also find that you will wake up naturally occassionly so just have a quick look round and then back to sleep.
 
I'd suggest just bite the bullet and do it. i remeber feeling the same way at first, but now I do it all the time. Often I put out 5x or 6x chain for better holding, and becuase if the boat swings 180deg I know the alarm will go off so I wake up for 2 mins and check. If I'm doubtful I keep the h/h plotter (eg Garmin 175 type thing) turned on by the bedside so I can see my position

It's a good idea imho to leave the anchor ball up when it gets dark and you put the anchor light on, becuase if you happen to be slumbering and half awake at sunrise you can just switch the light off to save the battery without having to trudge out to the foredeck to re-hang the ball.
 
Anchored out overnight for the first time recently so no expert but as usual it's a common sense thing.

If the boat holds for hours during the day then as long as the conditions remain calm then no problem.

As said above it helped that we got there early enough to see out one HW & LW.

We stayed in the one spot for 27 hours and it was fantastic.

After seeing out two turns of the tide, after getting a settled weather forecast and after going to bed following a fantastic sunset, did I sleep?

Erm, well not quiet I did eventually once I figured out what the strange noises were. With our bed being close to the bow and of course the windlass and chain there was a bit of a rumble as SV swung about. Turned out to be vibration from the chain as it moved across the seabed. I have been advised to fit snubbers between the chain and the forward cleats.

So armed with this info I can't wait to do it again. It is well worth it and opens up a whole new world.

Some piccys...
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Good comments re the anchor light and ball.

I love the comments "if" the boat swings 180 /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Just do it! The one thing I would strongly argue against is reversing hard to set the anchor - it is totally unnecessary and counter-productive, IMO. Why people feel obliged to do this is beyond me (and, no offence to Schmoo, but it seems to be our raggie brethren that do this more than anyone). One of our favourite pastimes is rocking up somewhere like Osbourne Bay or Studland, dropping the pick, opening a bottle of something cold and watching the WAFI Seabed Ploughing Championships.

So, here's what we do (YMMV). Find somewhere with known good holding and plan to spend the day there. Arrive on site and read the depth on the sounder. Get the tide tables and work out how much the tide will rise and fall from the present time (at the nearest tide diamond). It goes like this:

Let's say we have 4m under us when we arrive.
The nearest tide diamond says that there is 4.7m above LAT now
HW is 5.2m, and LW is 3.1m
Between now and HW, the tide will rise by 0.5m, and at LW will fall by 1.6m
Where I am, the water will rise and fall by (about) the same, so my maximum depth is 4m + 0.5m = 4.5m and my minimum depth is 4m - 1.6m = 2.4m

I'm happy in 2.4m of water, so low tide won't bother me. I want to let out 4 x depth of chain - my chain is marked every 4m, so for 4.5m depth I let out 5 marks to be safe - that's 20m.

At low water, I'll be able to swing in a circle about 17m radius, so I need to make sure that I'm at least a couple of boat lengths away from anyone else, so now we're ready to drop the anchor.

Let out the chain to the first mark. I now know the anchor has just about touched the bottom (in the case above), so I'll knock one engine astern at idle for a few seconds just to get a slow drift back while I keep letting the chain out. The key is to lay the anchor on the bottom but not bury it under a mound of chain, so I nudge her astern a few times as the chain goes down. Once the chain is all out, I walk forward and check the chain. It's probably dropping nearly vertically from the roller at this point, but if there's any kind of current or wind it will start to pull tight.

9 times out of 10, you'll see the chain tighten, then go slack as the weight of the chain checks the boat and then pulls her slightly ahead. This is usually sufficient to tell me the anchor has set, but if the stream or wind is keeping the chain taught, then just rest your finger tips on top of the chain: if it's solid, then it's set, but if you can feel rumbling, jumping or vibration then the anchor is probably dragging. Don't panic - just wait a few moments and check again. If it's still rumbling, then let out some more chain and wait.

This technique rarely fails - I can probably count the number of times we have had to have another go on the fingers of one hand. Once you've spent the day at anchor, you've been through a tide cycle, the boat will have swung and you'll still be there, so next time you'll know it will work just as well at night...
 
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(and, no offence to Schmoo, but it seems to be our raggie brethren that do this more than anyone).


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Yep, that will be me. And don't worry, you have to work much harder than that to offend me! (No c in shmoo, by the way)
 
I love your anchor ball Mick! It's supposed to be black :-)

I also love your two aft-deck arm chairs. Perfect G&T spot. Great photos as usual. Here are a few more, all overnighters. Hope we're convincing you gravygraham :-)

Taken about 5am, waking up off Azzurro, east side of Elba
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Cannes Lerins Islands
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TCM anchored for several days in Villefranche (taken last weekend)
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Cannes Lerins again
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And again x 2
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The beautiful Levazzi islands (rocks) south of Corsica
Corsicasouthanchorage.jpg
 
First time I anchored overnight (Last year), I created about 6 waypoints on the GPS all around the point I was anchored, just to check I wasn't drifting too far, even though I had the GPS anchor alarm on as well! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

After staying up 'till about 1:00 in the morning to keep an eye on it, I eventually had a good nights sleep. No anchor noise either as we've got an aft cabin! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I completely agree graham. This pulling hard on the anchor, taught on yachtmaster courses etc (along with other twaddle) is just nonsense. Most times, especially in powerful mobos, it just ploughs the seabed. I just drop mine (with the boat drifting slowly backwards at .5kt) and let out the right chain and leave it at that. Exactly as you say in your post. It can set itself if it wants to.
 
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I love your anchor ball Mick! It's supposed to be black


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LOL

Sorry guv - it faded in the sun /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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No anchor noise either as we've got an aft cabin!


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LOL /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
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I completely agree graham. This pulling hard on the anchor, taught on yachtmaster courses etc (along with other twaddle) is just nonsense. Most times, especially in powerful mobos, it just ploughs the seabed. I just drop mine (with the boat drifting slowly backwards at .5kt) and let out the right chain and leave it at that. Exactly as you say in your post. It can set itself if it wants to.

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or let her drift back on the tide - works for me /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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