[tdw]

Ok...now lets fess up here....how many of you realise how important an anchor buoy is ? And how many of you use one on a regular basis ?

How many use an all chain rode ?

Me, I've read all the magazine articles and while we we do have an all chain (well at least the first 40 metres) rode, have I ever actually rigged an anchor buoy?

Nope !! Never. Not once.

Why ? Can't be bothered. Oh sure, if I was anchoring in a dodgey area for more than an overnighter I might do it but most anchorages in our cruising grounds are pretty benign when it comes to snags and in forty years of mucking about in boats not never have I ever snagged an anchor line.

Ah...sorry....make that once.....

Yesterday.

We'd spent the night in one of our favourite spots where we have anchored so many times without a snag despite the fact that supposedly the bottom is foul. This is due to the area once being used as a ship repair yard and apparantly the odd piece of old ship "accidentally' slipped overboard.

So Sunday morning, I'm sitting out in the cockpit enjoying an early morning cup of tea when a workboat came out of the naval yard nearby. This set up a wash in the anchorage and I realised that the bow was coming up then 'bang crash' it would pull up short, hell of a racket, nasty jarring.

When things quietened down I went forward to see what was up. We were anchored in only 4.5metres though the water is not clear enough to see the bottom. Chain went straight down. I pulled up some chain by hand and it came in for a couple of metres then bang...stopped short. Erkkk.

Started the engine and reversed her against the swing. We didn't come to a jarring halt but it was a bit of a labour. This time used the windlass to haul up the chain and although it laboured mightily eventually up came a bloody great huge lump of rusted metal into which the anchor chain was most solidly embedded. Managed to eventually free it with a crowbar and bolt cutters then reanchored further out in the bay.

All's well that ends well but had that lump of iron been twice the size there is no way we could have got it up to the surface and it would have been a case of slip the anchor chain, hoping that at a later date a diver might have been able to find it. Worse case scenario we could have been down one anchor and 40 odd metres of chain. With an anchor buoy we could have easily located the anchor for later retrieval.

So there you go. Will we use an anchor buoy in future ? Probably not but it does give one pause for thought.

Most importantly for me it justifies fully, having an all chain rode. Had that been line then in all probability it would have cut through during the night.