Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Not wanting to start another anchor war, but,

I have some observations I would share. When I came into the anchorage yesterday to was blowing about 20 knots gusting to 25. We picked out a good looking spot up close to the hill and dropped out primary anchor in 15 feet but with a 5 foot rise we calculated from 20 feet to come up with a 5 to one ratio of 100 feet of 3/8 inch chain. The anchor we set was a 44 pound Bruce (not a knock off) and it drug twice. It has never failed to set, ever, so when it didn't get a set on the second try I elected to move to a different part of the bay and it set the first try. We backed down at 2000 RPMs and let it cook for a couple of minutes to make sure we were stuck well and ended up with a very high confidence level. We spent the afternoon on the beach and went to bed around 11PM. During the night the wind picked up to a steady 25 with gusts of 30 to 40. I saw 37 and another boat reported 40. Around 0900 hrs that next morning we noticed that our home had decided to move. We let her slide for about a quarter of a mile to see if she would re-set but it didn't look like she wanted to so we pulled up anchor in 35 to 40 knots and motored back to our original position but about 100 yards to the West. An hour later we were "on the road again" and set dumbfounded. The anchor has never failed us but now, counting the drag on our first two tries, it had failed to hook four times. What to do, what to do, what to do? I decided to drag out my 20 pound Danforth High Test from under the V birth and shackled 6 feet of 5/16th chain to it and readied it for deployment in front of the Bruce. We fired up the engine and Denny motored into the 38 knots back to our previous spot. While she was moving ahead I positioned the Danforth on the bow sprint and passed the 6 feet of chain over the rail and secured it with a shackle to the eye on the front of the Bruce. I passed the Danforth over the rail and let it hang in the water off the front of the Bruce which was at home in it's bow roller. About the time Denny had motored to the right spot, 50 yards to the west of our last drop, I had the shackle wired and ready to go. I dropped the two anchors trying to lower them so they paid out in a row and not pile on top of one another. I paid out 150 feet which is way over kill but worth the piece of mind. I put the snubber on and backed it up with a second in case the first one failed. The anchors seemed to catch instantly and I went down and set the anchor alarm and set up the VRM and ELB on the Radar to the point and one of the other boats. It's been two hours in 30 knots sustained and we are still here! How cool is that! Bottom line is the boat on our port side drug this morning as well and he had the Rockna. The boat on our starboard side didn't drag and he has a Rockna as well. Am I going to go out and buy another anchor (Rockna?)because of today? No! I just going to keep my Danforth handy. I have read discussions about using two anchors in tandem but never had a reason to try the technique. It wasn't all that hard to deploy and everything went as planned. I would use the technique again if ever a similar situation presents itself.

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