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

souljour2000 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

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...

Craig Smith · #2 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

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.

souljour2000 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

Curious why " there was no choice"...maybe you were adrift against a leeward reef? Maybe you were so tired you anchored and went below? All of the above? Details are half the fun here...could you be more specific Craig?

svHyLyte · #4 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

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...

souljour2000 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

I have not anchored in more than 40 feet of water myself..,While my sails were being outfitted I motored out into the Gulf a couple times to deep-sea fish off the back of the boat ...nothing too exciting...the fish get bigger the deeper you go...the anchor gets heavier too...

Brezzin · #6 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

125 feet off of North Carolina. The reason was to go scuba diving for Megladon teeth. Did two dives, spent the night and did two more dives the next day. We did have a short scope but the weather was fine.

sailingdog · #7 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brezzin

125 feet off of North Carolina. The reason was to go scuba diving for Megladon teeth. Did two dives, spent the night and did two more dives the next day. We did have a short scope but the weather was fine.

Not many boats carry enough rode to not have short scope at that depth.

QuickMick · #8 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brezzin

125 feet off of North Carolina. The reason was to go scuba diving for Megladon teeth. Did two dives, spent the night and did two more dives the next day. We did have a short scope but the weather was fine.

did you find any teeth? those things are really cool... and they dont make them anymore...

IIRC, i read about a FL beach were you can find them too

erps · #9 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

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.

kwaltersmi · #10 (**permalink**) 11-30-2010

40' is the deepest we've anchored, which isn't all that deep based on the above responses. We only carry 225' of rode so I wouldn't feel comfortable any deeper for anything more than just a quick lunch stop...but hauling that much rode back on deck without a windlass wouldn't be worth it anyway.