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What is the deepest depth you have anchored in and why?

7K views 39 replies 26 participants last post by  eckcn17 
#1 · (Edited)
We all occasionally anchor in deeper waters...maybe to swim, fish or ride out weather. What is the deepest water you have anchored in in your sailboat and why? Maybe this has been covered in past thread.?.. or maybe not in so many words...sea anchor deployments we can cover in another thread...
 
#2 ·
Something over 100'... in the Pacific... in the "there was no choice" category.

But definitely something to avoid. Can't get adequate scope, huge swinging circle anyway, a real pain to deploy and even more to retrieve, and no chance of recovering the anchor if there are any problems. In most places in the world you can always find thin enough water, shouldn't be any great need for it.
 
#22 ·
There are a couple of anchorages in the Pacific where the only place to anchor is in 100' plus depth. I'm guessing that is what Craig is talking about. Bora Bora maybe ?

Deepest I have ever anchored in is over 20metres (approx 65') in Cowan Creek NSW off Broken Bay. Reason to do so was overcrowding closer to shore and the need to get ashore. I was unbelievably thrilled when the windlass gave up the ghost as I started to haul back 35m chain, rope and anchor. Joy unbounded.

If 20 metres and the word Creek make you pause...Coal and Candle, Smiths and Cowan creeks are all mainly tidal offshoots of Broken Bay. Why Creeks ? I have no idea. During WWII, the US Navy kept a squadron of warships (cruiser I think was the biggest) anchored in this area.
 
#4 · (Edited)
In about 90 feet outside Two-Harbors when we couldn't get a mooring and it was too late, cold, dark to go further. We were fine but it was a real PITA to haul in all that rode/chain by hand the next AM.

FWIW...
 
#7 ·
Not many boats carry enough rode to not have short scope at that depth. :D
 
#9 ·
80 feet, and I wasn't quite prepared for how quickly the rode wanted to pay out when anchoring deeper than our standard depth. It was very impressive.
 
#11 ·
70 feet

A client and I brought his boat up to Savary Island where he has a summer home. I was teaching the kids to sail. There is a shallower spot, but it was taken. We used 200 feet of chain and 100 feet of rope. We managed to dig in the anchor. Two of us were on board each night.
 
#12 ·
Myself and my Daughter attempted to anchor in what was supposed to be 60' by the charts. My depthfinder was temporarily inoperative (old boat) at the time. After letting out 100' of 3/8" chain and 100' of rode, only to continue drifting with the flood, we hauled it all back in by hand. It was an ugly scene, both of us on the foredeck going "Heave, HEAVE" forever in the 90 F sun. I could hardly make my rust covered self get back to the cockpit after that one. All while drifting along at three knots between the islands. Nothing heavier than 100' of 3/8" chain hanging straight down off the bow. It must've been 200' there...
 
#13 ·
Around 70', very steep shoreline in BC. We stern tied so did not need to put out more than about 110' of chain as I recall. Have anchored many times in 60+-', it takes all 300' of chain and I'm never comfortable with it.
 
#14 ·
120 feet off the coast of Maine waiting for the fog to lift. Dead calm night. Not enough battery to run the radar that night. Between chain and rope rode, I carry about 1200 feet total that I can splice together as needed. The bulk of it is in 150 shots of 3/4 nylon that I keep at the ready...plus a total of 200 feet of 3/8 triple B chain. Needless to say, I like to keep enough line on hand if needed. Also comes in handy for tying up in mangroves for hurricanes.

Note: I'd reccomend everybody carry an aft anchor with a shot of at least 120 feet of rope rode ready to go in an emergency when there is no time to let the bow anchor go.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Tried anchoring in 50 feet of water at Block Island, IIRC. The CQR didn't set and I went to a spot with 30 foot depth - a shallower but more crowded part of the anchorage. Later that day a smaller sailboat apparently tried the same spot where we couldn't get a good set. She had dragged back and was up against a slightly bigger sailboat.

...Note: I'd reccomend everybody carry an aft anchor with a shot of at least 120 feet of rope rode ready to go in an emergency when there is no time to let the bow anchor go.
SV,

Can you provide some examples of when you'd need the (stern) anchor quickly?

Regards,
Brad
 
#17 ·
unexpected depth change, grounding immenient due to unmarked/mismarked/shifted shallows? engine fails--while dropping sail stern anchor used as emergency brake?
 
#25 ·
125' Off Decanso Bay in Catalina Island. We had 30' chain and 250' of rope on a 25# danforth. This was in a Columbia 28. We had a 24 hour anchor watch. We did this a few times when we could not get a mooring in Avalon Harbor. It was not fun pulling up the anchor. That was my job, the young strong son.
 
#26 ·
~100' is the deepest for me and it was something that we did intentionally on a calm night. When I worked commercially, we would regular anchor in Sommes Sound, ME in about 60-70' of water and outside of the mooring field in Isles of Shoals in about 50-70'. We anchored in Castine, ME once in a little over 80' of water to quickly run ashore. It was a rare night when we didn't have at least 30' of water under us at high tide.

The S/V Westward anchored on Stellwagen Bank two summers ago overnight. They said the noise of the whales made it difficult to sleep.
 
#27 · (Edited)
The time I anchored in 40 feet or so of water was only a few weeks ago...I was nine miles out in the Gulf by myself and on a good weather window...enjoyed a nice quiet night at first...so much so that I had put a kind of bungee damper..theres a name for it...snubber..maybe that's it...on the anchor line like some people do at moorings. This was done to take the" yank" or slapback out of the 160 feet or so of anchor line/chain I had out that was making a bit of an uncomfortable motion in the 1-2 foot "seas".
Then..about 2 am...a sudden steady wind of about 15 knots came up off the land and lasted for about a half hour or so...this land breeze caught me a bit by surprise...but eventually equalized with the water temp but only after I had immediately got up and took off the bungee arrangement and tied off again as normal.
 
#37 ·
if 1/4 chain is over kill then i really over do it i use a 13 lb danforth deep set and 27 ft of 3/8" chain and 150 ft 1/2" rode the deepest was 35 ft. the chain was free. Ive always been told the min chain is the length of your vessel.
 
#38 ·
I would recommend 2 times boat length for chain with an appropriate anchor. I am not a fan of Danforths, but that is more a function of where I sail.
 
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