Pulling up a muddy anchor chain / slippage

[tmtracey]

I was anchoring recently at Erwarton Bay on the Stour. It's a very soft muddy riverbed.

In the morning, try as I might, it was almost impossible to pull the anchor up as my hands kept slipping on the mud on the chain. The particularly difficult points were what mud was lodged in the chain and it could not bend over the bow roller. It was an onshore so I felt quite pressed to get the thing up quickly, especially being singlehanded.

I'm sure others have had this rather alarming experience. What's the solution? Grippier rubbery gloves / having a chain hook at hand / letting the chain wash more as it comes up? I don't really want to install an electric windlass.

Thanks in advance.

 

[simonfraser]

letting the chain wash more, do it slowely
if choppy the bounce of the boat will eventually dislodge the anchor if you can tie the chain down
and if engine man enough can back it away from the lee shore, reverse away and sort it later ?

 

[Poecheng]

Don't anchor there. I don't mean it flippantly because the mud in the Stour is the stickiest ooze known and stays on the chain or clothes and doesn't easily come off either. Waiting a bit with the chain in the water doesn't seem to make much difference. Bravo for getting it up at all by hand !

 

[penfold]

Two chain hooks, one fastened to the bitts and one with a short loop of rope for you to hold.

 

[Poignard]

I use leather gardening gloves for hauling up the anchor chain. They're pretty cheap.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Don’t understand the objection to a windlass. It’ll transform your anchoring experience.

 

[Sumara of Weymouth]

I pull up my chain by hand and like to use these fishermen's thermal gloves. They give a lot of extra grip and, of course, keep your hands warm in the winter. They cost less then £10.00 if I remember correctly.

 

[johnalison]

In a tideway it is easiest to raise the chain one section at a time, leave the next muddy bit for a minute or two, when the mud will wash off. You won’t move even when the chain is up-and-down because this is real mud.

 

[Rafiki]

I was anchoring recently at Erwarton Bay on the Stour. It's a very soft muddy riverbed.

In the morning, try as I might, it was almost impossible to pull the anchor up as my hands kept slipping on the mud on the chain. The particularly difficult points were what mud was lodged in the chain and it could not bend over the bow roller. It was an onshore so I felt quite pressed to get the thing up quickly, especially being singlehanded.

I'm sure others have had this rather alarming experience. What's the solution? Grippier rubbery gloves / having a chain hook at hand / letting the chain wash more as it comes up? I don't really want to install an electric windlass.

Thanks in advance.

Interestingly I was anchored a bit down river last weekend for two nights and I didnt think the mud was as bad as I've seen it. Tide was flowing fairly strongly when I raised the anchor which may have helped. I found that the very frequent stops to remove seaweed was the bigger problem. I do have an anchor windlass - you should get one, yes really!

 

[LiftyK]

My modest length of stainless steel chain is always slippery when wet. Any work gloves transform the experience quite remarkably. I think you’ll be pleased when you see the difference.

 

[tmtracey]

Thanks for the tips. I think I need to get used to the idea when that when the chain is vertical, you are still well attached.. It feels difficult to know when it's actually come off the bottom but I suppose you just keep an eye on bearings to shore etc.. Probably a matter of experience.

It sounds like that spot is pretty notorious. It looked great on the chart but hadn't taken in that ferry port runs 24/7 directly on the other shore.

A windlass sounds like is a future investment.. after some cheap rubber gloves.

 

[graham]

You can buy a chain stopper to mount on deck behind your bowroller. It stops the chain running back out until you lift the flap that grips the chain.

It wont help with the mud bot gives you a breather between heaves when raising the anchor.

I put a bucket of seawater and a brush on the foredeck to wash off the chain a bit during recovery. Also pays to have another bucket in the cockpit to drop the dirty gloves into.

I bought a secondhand SL anchorman manual windlass .much easier.

 

[roaringgirl]

I have a big windlass and I still have a chain-hook on a dyneema strop, a 3 core nylon snubber with a soft-shackle at the end and a second snubber of the same material with a whipped end for tieing rolling hitches all to hand when raising the hook, by windlass or by hand.

 

[johnalison]

It is good practice to use a chain hook to take the load off the windlass, though I sometimes omit this for a short lunch stop. An electric windlass is a wonderful thing to have if the boat will take it. If there is any problem with where you are, it’s no trouble - just pop up the anchor and try somewhere else. I’ve no experience with manual ones but I’ve no doubt they can be very useful in some boats.

 

[greeny]

Depends on the type of bottom for me and the depths. In my usual spot the wind swings onshore in the late afternoon. Being solo I shorten the scope to almost nothing and then go back to cockpit and drive slowly over what's left, lifting the anchor and washing the chain until in deeper water with more sea room, then go forward and recover everything. Muddy/sandy bottom steadily increasing in depth. Have to be careful the chain doesn't drag along the side of hull though so slowly is the name of the game. Not very seamanlike but works for me.

 

[rogerthebodger]

You could try a Prusik Knot arount the anchor chain the take a line back to a sheet winch to raise the anchor a little at a time

 

[tmtracey]

I can see a chain hook being useful. Is there a danger that under tension it would get stuck in the chain and, say in big swell, you get pulled into the pulpit, or it gets stuck in the bow roller?

 

[johnalison]

I can see a chain hook being useful. Is there a danger that under tension it would get stuck in the chain and, say in big swell, you get pulled into the pulpit, or it gets stuck in the bow roller?

There is no chance as I see it of it getting stuck in the chain. It would only get stuck in the bow roller if you set it up very short or tried to raise the anchor with it in place. I wonder if it has ever happened?

 

[johnalison]

Depends on the type of bottom for me and the depths. In my usual spot the wind swings onshore in the late afternoon. Being solo I shorten the scope to almost nothing and then go back to cockpit and drive slowly over what's left, lifting the anchor and washing the chain until in deeper water with more sea room, then go forward and recover everything. Muddy/sandy bottom steadily increasing in depth. Have to be careful the chain doesn't drag along the side of hull though so slowly is the name of the game. Not very seamanlike but works for me.

We sometimes get mud on the anchor in Hamford Water and our usual habit is to motor astern for a while with the anchor just below the water. This may look odd to onlookers, but what the hell.

 

[alahol2]

I use the chain hook, on a strop to a cleat, just to take a break from hauling; much faster than trying to cleat a runaway chain (chain hook on deck, not over the roller). Bucket of water on deck to wash hands.
I usually try to raise the main before raising the anchor (if there's enough sea room) hauled tight into the centreline, tiller free to do its own thing. The boat will generally tack back and forth as I haul anchor and eventually break the anchor out.