Every year, as we head into the “boating season”, there are plenty of reminders about safe boating habits (life jackets, MOB drills, communication, navigation lights, etc.). One topic that’s not discussed much around the lake is anchoring. That’s probably because most of us don’t anchor in the lake very often. Renee & I provided Reprise as the committee boat in February’s “Chapped Cheeks Regatta”. There, I learned a few things about anchoring in Canyon Lake, mainly that I don’t like it, but more importantly, that I don’t practice it enough.

Last summer, while chartering in the BVI, our crew learned more than we wanted to know about anchoring at midnight off Peter Island. There is plenty of information out there about appropriate anchor size and type, rode, scope, anchoring methods, and on-and-on. But one thing we learned about was our depth gauge alarm. And we were glad we used that night. Because we arrived late at Great Harbor, there were no mooring balls available, and anchoring space was very limited as the shoreline drops off steeply.

We decided on what we thought would be a good spot near shore in a depth of about 25’. After several tries, the anchor held to our satisfaction. The crew was tired, so we had dinner and retired early. Since we were close to shore, before settling in for what we hoped would be a restful night, we set our depth alarm to allow for some swing room. But we kept the tolerance range very tight. Just after midnight, the alarm sounded (what’s that beeping noise?).

I poked my head out of the hatch and noticed that the shoreline (“hard stuff”) had moved closer to us (about 15’ away). The shore did not appear to be at all threatened by our looming collision.

After a brief commotion, both above and below decks, our crew realized the anchor was dragging and all hands acted swiftly to get the engine started and to wrestle the (expletive) anchor back on board. We then made a couple of circles around the anchorage in order to fully awaken our nervous “mooring-ball-attached” neighbors and were able to use the light of a nearly-full moon to get a proper anchor set. For our crew, sleep the rest of the night was with one eye open (the good eye, arghhhh!).

If you have a depth gauge with an alarm, I recommend you take a few minutes to learn how to set it. It’s not hard to do and may save your boat. If you have a GPS with an alarm, that works well too. Above all, take the time to practice anchoring and maybe even spend a night “on the hook”.

Here are a couple of unique websites with good anchoring information: http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/anchor.htm
and
http://www.callipygia600.com/callnugget/allcruising/anchor.htm