Sleeping whilst at anchor?

Travelling Westerly

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OK here I go;

Some rules of engagment/ ground rules first if you like;

1 - Its not about types of anchors
2- Its not about snubbers
3 - Its not about anchoring technique
4 - No arguing please

OK - I have started to anchor alot overnight in prep for my trip south. I have a Raymarine Axiom CP, a Samsung tablet and phone with Anchor Pro app and Navionics on.

My current anchoring modus operandi is to drop the pick, set it, prove its dug in and go below for a cuppa. I set an alarm on my phone and tablet, 3 position fix on paper chart and go to sleep for an hour. Wake up and visually check outside bearings etc to ensure all is well and Im still where I planned to be. Repeat every hour (well try anyway).

It sounds all good but where it falls down is that I cant seem to sleep well at all! Im convinced Im going to drag and end up on the beach/rocks with someone from here posting a photo of the carnage alongside some smart arse comments :)

Im trying to achive a good nights sleep and letting my tablet/phone take care of the watch - am I missing anything else that may help? What does everybody else who anchors overnight do to achieve a good nights sleep?

Thanks
 
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MAURICE

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It helps if you check the charts to see what it says about the holding
if possible dive in to check the anchor
Have over sized anchor with full chain

I prefer to anchor when travelling and i sleep well. I do wake up when there is different movement on the boat but other than that its fine.
 

Boathook

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I normally turn all my electronics off when at anchor and asleep. I sometimes wake or get woken up by either a strange noise or different boat motion, but a quick glance confirms everything is OK and I go back to sleep. A decent anchor plus experience at anchoring also helps. The experience comes as you anchor more and more .....
 

Sandy

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A small night cap to celebrate a good day.

For some reason I naturally wake as the tide turns.

I do sleep well when afloat, so well that when a pall assured me that a mooring 50 meters from his was and all water one that I only woke when we were heeling at 45 degrees and a few pots had fallen into the cabin sole!
 

ip485

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You clearly need some medicinal alchol to temper your spirits! :)

But seriously, I think it just comes with confidence that you have done a good job anchoring up, and the boat will be where you left it in the morning. For me it tends to me where I have anchored. If it is off a lee shore with a good swell and I think the boat is going to end up on the rocks then I tend to me less relaxed that in a quiet bay or harbour where even if it drags the boat probably will not come to a lot of harm.
 

Travelling Westerly

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I normally turn all my electronics off when at anchor and asleep. I sometimes wake or get woken up by either a strange noise or different boat motion, but a quick glance confirms everything is OK and I go back to sleep. A decent anchor plus experience at anchoring also helps. The experience comes as you anchor more and more .....
I agree with that - the more I anchor the more I will get used to it - Im relativley new to anchoring overnight. I not there yet and turning off my elctronics would make my broken sleep even worse at the moment :LOL: .

I would like to think that I would hear the noise of the chain but I sleep in my aft cabin (center cockpit 40ft) so Im not sure I would hear it? Ill keep an ear open in the future to see if I can hear anything at tide cahnge - thanks for that advice (y)
 

Travelling Westerly

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You clearly need some medicinal alchol to temper your spirits! :)

But seriously, I think it just comes with confidence that you have done a good job anchoring up, and the boat will be where you left it in the morning. For me it tends to me where I have anchored. If it is off a lee shore with a good swell and I think the boat is going to end up on the rocks then I tend to me less relaxed that in a quiet bay or harbour where even if it drags the boat probably will not come to a lot of harm.
Ha - I was thinking about that too - a few pints may make it go a bit better :LOL:
 

johnalison

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We take no additional precautions, but the risk of wrecking the boat on East Coast mud is slim. I remember dragging once in a small creek and spending a few hours at an odd angle, but normally we can rely on staying where we were. I have never set the anchor alarm, for fear of relying on it, and because of a suspicion that it might either cry wolf or fail to work when required. We have occasionally anchored in more challenging places, such as the Channel Isles, but seem to have escaped unscathed.
 

JumbleDuck

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Im trying to achive a good nights sleep and letting my tablet/phone take care of the watch - am I missing anything else that may help? What does everybody else who anchors overnight do to achieve a good nights sleep?
I always have an escape route planned - basically a course to steer which will get me the hell out of there if I need to. If it's blowing, or likely to blow, I set an anchor watch on my GPS. I almost always wake up for the turn of tide anyway, at which point I have a look around, mutter a bit and go back to bed. I have only oncekept an anchor watch overnight, riding out "Malin, northerly F12" in the Sound of Ulva. Didn't budge an inch.
 

Dan Tribe

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It helps if you check the charts to see what it says about the holding
if possible dive in to check the anchor
Have over sized anchor with full chain

I prefer to anchor when travelling and i sleep well. I do wake up when there is different movement on the boat but other than that its fine.
I've sometimes heard about this practice of diving to check the anchor, but in all my years of sailing I have never felt the need, nor have I ever met anyone who has done it.
Does it really happen? Perhaps I'm being negligent.
I find it very relaxing to spend a night at anchor, provided you have chosen a secure and sheltered spot.
I sleep better there than at home, it's magic!
 
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Stemar

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I've sometimes heard about this practice of diving to check the anchor, but in all my years of sailing I have never felt the need, nor have I ever met anyone who has done it.
Does it really happen? Perhaps I'm being negligent.
Well, I can see the attraction in the Caribbean, but in April, in the North Sea - or even the Solent? No thanks!

As for the OP's worries, I'd just get an anchor watch app for my phone and a glass of something that'll warm the cockles and calm the nerves. Do make sure it works when you phone's sleeping, though. I have an app with a timer, but it goes to sleep when the phone does. I keep it because it has other useful tricks, but the timer's 100% chocolate teapot!
 

Kelpie

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You clearly need some medicinal alchol to temper your spirits! :)

But seriously, I think it just comes with confidence that you have done a good job anchoring up, and the boat will be where you left it in the morning. For me it tends to me where I have anchored. If it is off a lee shore with a good swell and I think the boat is going to end up on the rocks then I tend to me less relaxed that in a quiet bay or harbour where even if it drags the boat probably will not come to a lot of harm.

Yup there are lots of factors that weigh in to it. I suppose it's a sort of subconscious risk assessment. I've got to the stage that if I'm not totally happy with where I've anchored, there's probably a reason for that and I should listen to my gut.

What tends to keep me awake is when the tidal height is marginal and I start wondering if I definitely worked it out correctly... sometimes I'll wake up in the night and go and check the sounder just to make sure...
I've been caught out once by a wind shift, we woke up on a lee shore and whilst we didn't drag it taught me to be more careful. The wind might change a few hours earlier than the forecast says!

If you are confident that the boat is going to stay pointing in roughly the same direction, with enough water under the keel, and you don't have surf breaking a boatlength behind you, then you're probably fine. Digging in your anchor at full revs astern puts a huge load on, and if that doesn't drag then any wind that you can sleep through isn't going to either.
 

Bouba

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OK here I go;

Some rules of engagment/ ground rules first if you like;

1 - Its not about types of anchors
2- Its not about snubbers
3 - Its not about anchoring technique
4 - No arguing please

OK - I have started to anchor alot overnight in prep for my trip south. I have a Raymarine Axiom CP, a Samsung tablet and phone with Anchor Pro app and Navionics on.

My current anchoring modus operandi is to drop the pick, set it, prove its dug in and go below for a cuppa. I set an alarm on my phone and tablet, 3 position fix on paper chart and go to sleep for an hour. Wake up and visually check outside bearings etc to ensure all is well and Im still where I planned to be. Repeat every hour (well try anyway).

It sounds all good but where it falls down is that I cant seem to sleep well at all! Im convinced Im going to drag and end up on the beach/rocks with someone from here posting a photo of the carnage alongside some smart arse comments :)

Im trying to achive a good nights sleep and letting my tablet/phone take care of the watch - am I missing anything else that may help? What does everybody else who anchors overnight do to achieve a good nights sleep?

Thanks
Can I infer from your post that you sleep well when on the move ? If so, why? Are you not worried about being run down by a oil tanker? Or running onto a reef? Or going inside the exclusion zone of an aircraft carrier and being blown out of the water?
 

Travelling Westerly

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Can I infer from your post that you sleep well when on the move ? If so, why? Are you not worried about being run down by a oil tanker? Or running onto a reef? Or going inside the exclusion zone of an aircraft carrier and being blown out of the water?
My wife is on watch during transits/underway but I wanted us both to have a good nights sleep when at anchor as I view it as having some respite for us both - recharge the batteries as it was (y)
 

RichardS

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I appreciate that I'm breaking rule 3, but, to me it is all about anchoring technique.

The only time I don't sleep well is when I have a niggling doubt about whether I have set out enough chain for the conditions. If you have to be close to other boats or close to shallows then you might be forcibly limited to a less than ideal scope and you might have a few restless moments wondering whether the wind might get up in the night.

The solution is to anchor far enough away from other boats or rocks such that you can put out excessive chain. If you can achieve 10:1 you will sleep like a log because nothing is ever going to disturb your slumbers ..... other than boats arriving after nightfall and anchoring on your chain but that is very unusual.

Richard
 

Neeves

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I confess - we too turn all the instruments off and don't set an anchor alarm. We have an anchor app, a free one, on my phone - I did try it to check that it actually worked and have never used it since. I am criticised, here, for not using the app, but I do suggest everyone else uses one - so don't do as I do, but do as I say!

If we were to drag we would lie broadside on to the wind the change in motion would wake the skipper - I'd bo thrown out of bed pronto, ordered to sort it out, skipper would go back to sleep. But I don't rely on WiFi, but the wife :) (acknowledgement to Paul)

However - I would check the chart plotter for movement after setting the anchor, I would check visually where we are, how we are lying to the shore etc etc, I don't formally check transits but maybe I do so subconsciously. If I'm twitchy in the middle of the night - I look out the window and I check the bearings (we have a compass, with a reassuring light, at the foot of the berth).

I commend the compass at/in the berth. I tells you when the tide has changed (which might be slightly different to the tables), it tells you when the front has come through, it tells you that your pointing the same direction as when you went to bed (or not). Small gimballed compass are cheap as chips and easy to wire in. I wanted one in the berth roof (as then I could see it virtually without moving) - but that was too complicated.

A decent malt or a bottle of Shiraz works wonders.

Jonathan
 
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scruff

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I always have an escape route planned - basically a course to steer which will get me the hell out of there if I need to.

This is a really good point - I always ensure our approach to an anchorage can be travelled safely regardless of the state of the tide. That way upon retrieving the anchor, no matter the experience of your crew or what you may need to attend to, you can tell them to drive the boat out following the pink line on the chart plotter knowing all will be well.

I also give the engine 2,200 rpm in reverse (3/4 throttle) and use >5:1 scope. I like a good nights sleep and can sleep like a baby knowing the anchor won't budge regardless of the wind strength.
 

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