reAnchoring in the midst of Night

[Casey]

Gee's what does that title mean?? ...let me explain.

Saturday was my last night on Lake Powell following a delightful two weeks on the water and a great Powell CBGT. The weather had been as close to perfect as one can expect, for the whole period.

Let me back up a bit. I had launched at Wahweap, so decided to anchor-out in a protected cove on Warm Creek Bay only a few miles from Wahweap, and enjoy my final night afloat.

For some reason, I have a habit of reconning my anchor sites before the sun goes down just in case the wx blows up during the night and I have to make a middle-of-the-night "relocation." That night it was a good idea!

About 200yards to the west was a smallish sandy beach, and about 100 yards to the east was a large rock outcropping. I marked each location with a GPS waypoint and proceeded to drop and set the anchor. The evening was beautiful, with only a hint of breeze.

About 9:30PM (it was fully dark and the moon hadn't come up yet...) I awoke to the sounds of water slapping the hull. When I got up to check the anchor and my location, it became clear the anchor had drug. I reset the anchor but it never held against the approx 20-25K wind. I figured it was time to find that sandy beach and "go ashore."

The chartplotter was already turned-on so navigating to the pre-selected beach (and avoiding the rock outcrop...) was reasonably easy.

Lessons learned:
(1) Thinking about what you "might" have to do if weather deteriorates during the night can be very useful. In the dark, remembering where my "retreat" area was, and having a waypoint layed-in, was extremely helpful. I've followed this anchoring routine for years, but Sunday night was the first time I've actually had to implement it. Now I'll be almost compulsive about it!
(2) Naturally we all have a good flashlight on board. ...my flashlight worked, but the batteries weren't optimum. I had spares for everything except the flashlight! ...Duh. Now I'll be shopping for a good (and hopefully small) hand-held spotlight to keep handy.
(3) Before going to bed I usually stow galley things away and keep my headlamp and flashlight in their own special location(s). It helped to have things put away where they belong, which lessened the stress of the nighttime Adventure!

...just some thoughts.

Best,
Casey

[journey on]

Uh, just out of nosiness, what was the bottom and what kind of anchor did you have?

Boris

[Casey]

Boris,

I use a Delta (14# as I recall), and it has always worked fine in the past so I'm not sure what happened this time. There was nothing on the anchor when I retrieved it, so I'm guessing that I may have initially caught a rock(edge?) but with a change in wind direction, it released.

Best,
Casey

[SEA3PO]

One evening on Powell we had to work at setting our Bruce anchor...it did not dig in well.... the bottom was small shale rock....and the holding was somewhat iffy.... Except for Fish Halk Roger... who found what must have been a huge rock to hook. (or a crack in the rock face) ..... in the morning he had a heck of a time getting the hook up..... it was in 30 to 40' of water and I was amazed he managed to get it loose..... I really thought it was a goner.

Joel
SEA3PO

[Jim & Dara]

Thanks for sharing this experience. I have yet to anchor out overnight but we are both looking forward to getting out soon.

[breausaw]

You spend enough time swinging on the hook you will have to get up in the middle of a pitch black night and move you’re a-s. Been there done that, love boating!

[Sea Wolf]

Casey's approach with the reconnoitering and the use of the GPS is the best overall approach, but I'd also strongly recommend a powerful searchlight and boat lights in situations where you need to see the shore in tight mooring situations.

Do it quite a bit at Shasta Lake!







Joe.

[hardee]

Joe, Way to lighten up the conversation.



Harvey
SleepyC

[Hunkydory]

[baensch-ak]

Interesting, good points made above. Had to re-anchor in the dark recently when the wind came up and have NO excuse. Karen and I have anchored from Desolation Sound to the Bahamas. To wit: The most common failing is not enough rode out to drag the anchor flat on the ground to set initially. (You can safely shorten rode a bit after setting well if space is an issue.) The next one is not backing down on it, or not hard enough, to set properly. Enough heavy chain is helpful, too. A well set anchor of the right size will not let you down - well, by far most of the time. We once had our 35# CQR down well in Maine, holding fine through shifts in tides and wind, until we were below the next day and suddenly saw the scenery go by. When tide and wind ganged up on it, the anchor could not reset because it had fouled with weeds. Lesson: Don't anchor in weeds, pick deeper water where they don't grow. To address getting hung up, rig a trip line, especially in BC where there are a lot of logging cables on the bottom. We snagged one in Charleston Hbr. and it was a project to get free. We just got a Manson 15# that has a slot in the shank, allowing pull in the opposite direction from setting, without a trip line. Have yet to use it, but Lloyds gives it top marks for quick setting and holding. Yet no anchor hold securely in big rocks. All types need a chance to dig in. If you have a windlass, a strong swivel is a good idea to take care of the inevitable twist in the rode.
Plotters have anchor alarms - set it and use it. If power is an issue, use a hand held GPS, zoom in, watch the pattern the boat makes while swinging. If concerned, just check to see if that little boat still is in the pattern. As the fellow said above, scouting your anchorage is very good policy, along with good reference points. Beats going bump in the night, or waking up seriously slanted on the rocks. We carry a hand held spot light powered off the 12V plug, but prefer the use of night vision in the dark.
Al & Karen

[thataway]

It is not only dragging, but protection which may cause you to re-locate in the middle of the night. I have done that any number of times. I seem to have an automatic "clock" which gets me up every two hours to check the anchor and bearings.

Also taking not only a GPS location, but a compass bearing out of a anchorage is important. Although lights are very useful when close to land, they can make night vision detiorrate if in areas where the light is not essential, and you need to see natural features against starlight or moonlight.

Also having more than one type of anchor is a good idea--at least one for mud, and another for rocks, sand and combination bottoms.

There are some bottoms where any anchor will just not hold--and you have to move to a better location.

[Hunkydory]

[breausaw]

I use to leave the GPS on at night and still occasionally do, but mostly set a minimum depth alarm on the sonar; I prefer separate GPS and sonar. Only time I set a max depth alarm is if I’m concerned about being blown out into deep water, that’s usually not a concern. Have never seen a half arch or circle track occur on the GPS, usually resembles doodle. Wind direction around PWS changes constantly especially in protected anchorages, so judging your swing and tide correctly is our biggest concern.
Still have vivid memories of being on anchor watch in a bay south of Kodiak in late November. The Loadstar was a 66 foot converted T boat; we had 3 other smaller fishing boats tied along side. Wind was sustaining 40 knots with guests to 75 right down the bay. We dragged anchor twice so decided to attach 2 additional long line anchors out front of the main anchor; that did the trick. While pulling anchor to tie on the additional anchors we snagged an abandoned ground line. The line was alive with sea life; it was eerie watching the line undulate and move as I cut it free; funny how images stick in your mind after 20 years.
Back then we didn’t have GPS technology so you stared at the radar tube all night and watched your depth, staying awake was never a problem.

[Hunkydory]

Totally agree with the photo of anchor track being unusual in that it did form a perfect half circle resembling an actual ships anchor and that is why I took the photo. Yes more normally the tracks while at anchor would more resemble doodles, but these doodles do often form on one side and in the course of the night as the wind and tides change the far points of the boat swing track form not a perfect circle but an identifiable range extent of the circle around the anchor. Normally after dropping the anchor I watch the extent of the swing points and it seldom takes very long to determine the range the boat should be staying within and as the hours pass by a quick glance in the middle of the night is all that's needed to see if all is well. In my anchoring experience the nights the boat hardly moved at all, but just drifted a little above the anchor not ever setting up an identifiable pattern is as rare as the anchor track photo I showed. I agree the depth indicator alarm can be another anchor drift alarm as well the gps anchor alarm, which I usually set too. With all the displacement speed cruising we do and the low amp output of the Honda's, the small gps is the only electronics we prefer to have on at night.

[Captains Cat]

Jay, a very perfect and revealing trace. You can clearly see where you dropped the hook and the swing you had while "on it". Very instructive.

Charlie