Sleeping whilst at anchor?

Bouba said:
I’ve tried three times to divert the thread to anchors but it’s holding firm
Click to expand...
You're certainly putting in the spade work, but I fear that you are ploughing a lone furrow. Even with the power of a sixth Dan, fourth generation anchors should do the trick, unless caught between a rock'n'a hard place, as Neeves' friend Bruce could tell you. Only a madman (like Charles Manson) could disagree, if he wasn't saying "Boo, gel" to frighten his female victims. Still, keep your hair on, for tresses are hard to grow if they have been clawed out, and seek your fortune elsewhere. I have poor old Britany Spears (she was dealt a rough hand) on the radio and her voice sounds rough. Perhaps she should have a Fisherman's Friend? {cont p94]
 
Err? Anyone recommend and anchor alert app for iPhone ? Just so that I can have one more thing to worry about ?

Actually, it would be good to know if there any good apps out there....... you can never have too many tools in the box ?
 
I refuse to not sleep. If I don't like the situation I will...
  • Test the power set.
  • Add scope.
  • Snubber.
  • Add a riding sail or in some other way reduce yawing.
  • Deploy a second anchor. Perhaps just a hammer lock, or perhaps a V.
  • Move.
Or perhaps not sleep much and vow not to anchor there again.

But mostly I will do what ever I can to improve the situation, even if it takes some effort. It's not worth not sleeping.

To a considerable extent, it just takes practice to remove doubt.

(I don't mind getting up a few times. But I'm not going to do it just because I am ill-at-ease.)
 
Last edited:
I'm primarily replying to say not to worry and that you'll get used to it, @Cornishwesterly - with practice you'll sleep soundly in a good anchorage in light and moderate winds.

Arguably my shite first anchor did me a favour in that I have now lost the fear of dragging - waking up in the middle of the night to haul and reset anchor may be a pain in the ass, but it's not scary and I generally sleep pretty well unless the anchor alarm awakes me.

Sorry, but I'm not going to wade through 80 replies to see if this has already been suggested, but I wouldn't worry about the 3-position fix if you've got batteries for mobile phone and chart plotter. I leave the chartplotter running at night and the boat's track makes a sickle-shaped scribble on the display - that's how you know it's holding; the scribble develops a thickness, a quarter-moon shape, according to the windiness and the chain's catenary. With a modern chartplotter you can check the display from your berth using the remote app; if the screen is black in the morning it's because you dimmed it at night - put a jacket over your head and you'll be able to see it to reactivate the brightness settings.
 
Sleeping at anchor boils done to your state of mind. You could just be a nervous person and all the skills in the world at anchoring, confidently executed, will not relax you and you will worry and not sleep. Or the more you anchor overnight the more you normalize the risk and the easier it is to sleep.

I have anchored many, many times now. I do wake up, I am aware of changes, I do get up and check if I need to and I sometimes feel concerned but I don’t consider it an issue.
 
I would rather sleep lightly and sense when something has changed. I usually set an alarm for slack water anyway and see the boat settled again. It is no hardship and quite pleasant sitting in the cockpit with a cup of tea enjoying the night sky.

One can usually catch up on missed sleep and if you don't it won't do you any harm.
 
ctva said:
With nearly 50 posts in a few hours, I think the conclusion is that anchoring is over thought. With that comes anxiety and the resultant inability to sleep.

KISS works well. We select where we are going to drop, check the depths around, drop, settle, set with some reverse, check transits and finish with G&T's. Once happy, electronics off and no alarms. All the modern gadgetry on a boat has the same effect of smart phones where you feel the need to check it every few minutes. In the old days (pre GPS) it was simple and people worried less.

So, stop over thinking and enjoy the scenery.
Click to expand...

Anchor threads seem to evolve very quickly into scripts that engender fear and uncertainty. The numbers of yachts lost through anchoring mishaps is not large, based on this forum over the last decade. Yes there are some, but more people, per head of population have car accidents (and I suspect fall off ladders) than lose yachts. Some may recall I had a thread some years ago on 'dragging of anchors' and no-one admitted to their modern anchor dragging - despite the horror stories put about by the likes of (me). Morgans Cloud and Panope of the weakness of some designs.

Accept that anchors are a compromise - no anchor is perfect. A Fortress is the best that money can buy for thin soupy mud and in sand but it less good in other seabeds, a concave anchor might clog if tripped (change of tide/wind), you really need to check your CQR is reliably set - a series of simple characteristics of anchors that are well documented - accept the reality, be prepared to change your anchor for the conditions - but relax.

So get it into perspective, try to use an anchor your know and trust (many are more than happy with a, genuine, CQR or Bruce). Follow simple rules about scope, snubbers, power setting - and enjoy the experience and then do it more often.

I am of the belief, that the spreadsheets for Fortress are 'too' generous and it is difficult to set deeply (because the recommended anchor is big) - no wonder they trip in a change of tide - the rode gets caught under the stock. Look at a Mantus - those ears that support the roll bar look like a stock - buy oversized, change of tide - I wonder what might happen - buy the anchor sized for your yacht (other anchors have the same issues.

Lets get the fear factor out of anchor threads.

Jonathan
 
I just wish I could sleep for 3 or 4 hours without having to get up for a piss!

Have a compass course written down that will take you clear of hazards into deeper water.
Jot down 2 or 3 transits or bearings, bearing in mind you probably won't be able to see them when the sun goes down.
Set an anchor watch on your phone, tablet or plotter.
In a similar vein, set a geofence on your plotter so that if you cross it an alarm sounds.
Set shallow and deep alarms on your echo sounder.
Set an alarm to wake you at the turn of the tide.
Drink some cocoa with a shot of rum in it before turning in.
And most important of all. Don't forget to cancel all these alarms before setting off in the morning!
 
Porthandbuoy said:
I just wish I could sleep for 3 or 4 hours without having to get up for a piss!

Have a compass course written down that will take you clear of hazards into deeper water.
Jot down 2 or 3 transits or bearings, bearing in mind you probably won't be able to see them when the sun goes down.
Set an anchor watch on your phone, tablet or plotter.
In a similar vein, set a geofence on your plotter so that if you cross it an alarm sounds.
Set shallow and deep alarms on your echo sounder.
Set an alarm to wake you at the turn of the tide.
Drink some cocoa with a shot of rum in it before turning in.
And most important of all. Don't forget to cancel all these alarms before setting off in the morning!
Click to expand...
The problem is that the OP is younger than us. Maybe nobody should anchor overnight until their prostate enlarges.
 
For the last 51 years I have dropped the anchor and gone to sleep, having done one thing that nobody has mentioned on this thread.

I have never bothered with anchor alarms, because they didn’t exist in 1970, and I have never bothered with “setting” the anchor because my first two boats didn’t have engines and the third and fourth ones had engines that were hardly worth trying to start. Besides, it’s just nicer to bring up and get under way quietly, under sail.

I have not yet dragged an anchor whilst asleep.

The thing that nobody has mentioned and which I think is quite important is ...

...hoist a riding light...

I say “hoist” because I deplore people who use an all round white at the masthead. YMMV.
 
Last edited:
Kukri said:
For the last 51 years I have dropped the anchor and gone to sleep, having done one thing that nobody has mentioned on this thread.

I have never bothered with anchor alarms, because they didn’t exist in 1970, and I have never bothered with “setting” the anchor because my first two boats didn’t have engines and the third and fourth ones had engines that were hardly worth trying to start. Besides, it’s just nicer to bring up and get under way quietly, under sail.

I have never dragged an anchor whilst asleep.

The thing that nobody has mentioned and which I think is quite important is ...

...hoist a riding light...

I say “hoist” because I deplore people who use an all round white at the masthead. YMMV.
Click to expand...
and don’t forget the black ball⚓️⚫️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

R
My boat trip hopefully in May Around Scotland
2 3
Replies
54
Views
1K
ProDave
ProDave

Share this page

Top