Challenging Anchorages
July 4, 2007
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

We asked the DeRidders and all the other SetSail cruising correspondents to write about their experiences and techniques anchoring in adverse/challenging situations.

In March 2005, SetSail posted a piece in which we wrote about our ways of anchoring Magic Dragon, illustrated with photos. In short, we use a3/4" braided nylon rode and whatever length of chain is needed, shackled to our 85lb plow. We make sure that we have enough chain out so that the nylon doesn't ride on the bottom. We carry 225 feet of chain in 25' and 75' lengths that can be shackled together. We have three other 45 lb anchors: a plow (CQR), a Danforth and a kedge. Depending on need we can deploy a scope three to seven times the depth using floats to keep the nylon from chafing on the bottom.

Our stable 14' outboard powered shore boat with a removable bow roller allows us to tend to anchors if needed. It is a very useful rig to set an extra anchor or to move and retrieve anchors. We have even been able to move our 150lb ferro cement mushroom mooring with it. To move or retrieve a heavy anchor I get in the bow and pull all the scope up until the chain or line is straight up and down. I go into the stern creating a lift at the bow and with the outboard I can then move it to where I want the anchor to be - under Magic Dragon's bow, for instance, where we can lift it up with the windlass.

Removable bow roller.

We have been lying on the anchor for so much of our life that we've become fairly casual about anchoring. We look for good sheltered places and then we drop the hook and consider ourselves home. In the early days when we depended on a 45lb plow we dragged now and then and simply re-anchored when we - or someone else - noticed us on the move. Since 1975 when we enlarged one of our 45lb plows into an 85 pounder, we have seldom dragged, the exception being in soft bottom shallow water when the wind shifts suddenly. So far we have not hit anything before the anchor digs in for the different wind direction. However when the wind pipes up, we put out plenty of scope and deal with what has to be done. To add scope without letting the rode go on the bottom, we clip a solid plastic float onto the nylon at less than one depth from the chain.

Taking up anchor.

Magic Dragon can be wild in strong winds, sheering back and forth, especially in gusty conditions. So in warmer places we anchor by the stern. To do this, we motor to windward a little, let the bow fall off, then carry the anchor rode outboard to the stern, holding position in reverse until the line is cleated astern, with the nylon still leading out of the bow roller. Anchored that way, Magic Dragon feathers off the wind like a wind sock and puts out a tame pull on its anchor. We always retrieve the anchor with the windlass from the bow. In colder weather when we want the shelter of our windshield, we tame the beast by setting a 15lb Danforth anchor directly abeam of our bow, using no chain, just nylon. I drop it from the dinghy then we cleat it at the end of a swing toward it, enough to keep the bow from swinging in the opposite direction. The pull remains on the main anchor but the small anchor stops the sheering action. It works amazingly well, but requires tending when the wind shifts.

Moving an anchor.

In the tropics where we have anchored amongst coral heads where the sand is thin over hard bottom, we sometimes found it necessary to wrap our chain around a coral head to be secure during squalls. In shallow water diving this is easily done snorkeling. In deep water scuba gear becomes useful. Usually I was able to simply take the chain around the coral and hook it under the plow but on a few occasions when we intended to stay a while I have taken a chain, a shackle and a big swivel to create a mooring out of a large coral head.

In river channels and passages where currents and wind shifts have to be taken into consideration, we have found that anchoring bow and stern can put too much load on the anchors causing them to drag. So we sometimes have taken the time to set two or even three anchors shackled together to a swivel to which we attach the bow on a short scope, one depth or less of nylon to the swivel. This makes a dependable temporary mooring because the load on the anchors remains in the same direction no matter where the wind and current come from. With our chain arrangement we can use whatever length of chain may be necessary for the circumstances and regardless of the chain length used, the boat only swings over little more than its length. This procedure can be time consuming but using our dinghy it is not a difficult task. We have left Magic Dragon moored in that way for several weeks while we went away by air or by road.

Magic Dragon is easy to manoeuvre even when backing up so we often have dropped the hook and tied our stern ashore. It can be a good way to hide close to shore, out of the wind or traffic. We have a routine procedure for that; with a stern line coiled on deck, we drop the anchor and back up to where we can tie the stern. One of us gets in the dinghy to tie the stern line ashore, the other tends the lines aboard. The trick is to judge the distance from shore where we should drop the anchor in the first place!

We try not to anchor in rocky bottoms, but beating up the US West Coast we have on several occasions taken shelter over night behind some rocky point or islets. The plow held ok, even became difficult to dislodge, but we've been lucky and never lost one. In coral we have also had our challenges retrieving anchors but I can only remember having to use scuba once to free our own unwilling anchor, although I have dived with snorkel to do the job in shallow waters a few times.

Kelp and weedy bottom can be too slippery for plows and Danforth anchors. We have used our fisherman kedge in those conditions in fairly calm weather. But I would be reluctant to depend on it if a wind came up unless it had gone into the rocks underneath.

It is not only rock and coral that can make an anchor hard to retrieve. In the Hawaiian Islands we weathered a northerly storm off Pokai Bay. We set the Danforth off our bow into the swells, and we set two plows at 30 degrees on each side of our stern from where the gusts were catching us, first from one side of the hill sheltering us, next from the other side. It blew very hard for a couple of days and big swells were rolling under us, breaking in a spectacular way on each side of us onto the shallower coral bottom. Our anchors were set in coarse sand and we kept the nylon lines fairly taut with the windlass so that the action of the swells was absorbed by the stretch in the nylon. The boat stayed firmly in position. After the blow we discovered that the plows had dug themselves and their chains into the sand down to near the shackles 25 feet up the chain. It took hours to pull them back out...pulling on the windlass until we buried the bow some, then letting the buoyancy of the boat slowly pull the anchors out one at a time.

In Agrigan, one of the Northern Mariana Islands where we took a party looking for a lost treasure, we had to anchor on a steep bottom of boulders in the only vaguely sheltered bay. Our bow anchor was down in over 100 feet and our stern anchor in less than 10 feet. Luckily it did not blow hard while we were there. But one of us remained aboard at all times ready to fire up the engine, just in case.

We try not to have to anchor in deep water because of the danger of getting an anchor stuck in the bottom. However when the bottom is sand or mud, our system of chain and rode has proven to be a practical way to deploy adequate scope and retrieve it easily.

In the 1960s, nylon was the fibre of choice for anchoring because of its elasticity. We have always gone by that criteria. But who knows...too much elasticity may be cause for more sheering at anchor in gusty winds. All chain has the ability to dampen the pull on an anchor until the loads are such that it straightens out, then a nylon or rubber snubber becomes indispensable. We see yachts with non-stretch synthetic rope on their anchors these days, and for all we know this could be a good way to go if a suitable snubber can be used on such a system.