Looking for soft mud to test an anchor...

[marianclaire]

MedSailor: No help with your first question but in reference to your second post. Here on the Neuse River, NC, we have areas of very soft mud. Actually we have water, then a slurry about like pudding, then after digging down a couple of feet we have semi-solid mud and then something that will hold in a blow. The Fortress, set to the mud setting and combined with a 10ft cable pendent is the best we have found in these conditions. This is serious mud. I have reached down thru the "solid" stuff 3 ft just to touch the top of the shank while checking my set before a storm. No telling how deep it is after.
Not paid by Fortress and I own and use several types of anchors depending on conditions. Dan S/V Marian Claire

[MedSailor]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

Have you seen anyone test in grass? That's the one that seems able to defeat any anchor system and we have a few places with it, if you don't get on a mooring.

I've got a huge grass bed within a mile of my slip. I was motoring over it and looked down and saw eelgrass everywhere and about shipped my pants!

Turns out the eelgrass is just 25ft long and was reaching the surface easily. Seems like a nice spot to try and drop the anchor....

Any ideas on how to measure pull on a budget?

MedSailor

[Minnewaska]

Originally Posted by MedSailor

.....Any ideas on how to measure pull on a budget?

The trouble with measuring anchor holding is that you could theoretically have constant pull, even though you are dragging.

Imagine you are set and create a couple thousand pounds of pull, then the anchor starts to drag through the bottom, but doesn't come unset.

[chef2sail]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

Have you seen anyone test in grass? That's the one that seems able to defeat any anchor system and we have a few places with it, if you don't get on a mooring.

Agreed. That's the only bottom here I have ever anchored in with my Rocna that I have actually had to reset a couple of times. Some of the creeks here have grassy bottoms.


Dave

[MedSailor]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

The trouble with measuring anchor holding is that you could theoretically have constant pull, even though you are dragging.

Imagine you are set and create a couple thousand pounds of pull, then the anchor starts to drag through the bottom, but doesn't come unset.

Seems like pull, plus GPS speed over ground would fix that. If the pull is there and the SOG is 0.0 you're not dragging.

MedSailor

[Minnewaska]

Originally Posted by MedSailor

Seems like pull, plus GPS speed over ground would fix that. If the pull is there and the SOG is 0.0 you're not dragging.

MedSailor

Even some swing will display as SOG. The likely scenario is getting a bit of both, inconsistently.

[blt2ski]

Doesn't skagit bay have some mud? or east of Anacortes some too?

If you get down to Lk Washington, juanita Bay in the middle NE part of the lake is pretty muddy!

Now that I am typing, I am recalling a Mud bay somewhere close by.

Marty

[MedSailor]

Originally Posted by blt2ski

Doesn't skagit bay have some mud? or east of Anacortes some too?

Marty

You're right! The softest mud I've ever encountered is 4 nautical miles from my slip!!! (I have once taken keel-soundings in that mud ) I never thought of that because I never anchor there, it would be a bit like pitching a tent in your back yard....

Well sheesh! I recently found an eelgrass bed within sight of my slip and soft mud is nearby. Mantus VS Fortress test coming up! (in a few months, when the weather improves, and after my haulout )

MedSailor

[blt2ski]

No worries Med,

I'll erase my post...you can erase yours. or we can get into a shouting pissing swearing match which includes cooking and eating fuzzy wombat types, that would surely get said thread erased from memory, so you will not have to be to embarrassed about forgetting there was a pile of mud just outside your door!

Marty

[aeventyr60]

I remember dragging around in Port Madison after a 180 degree wind shift and a stiff breeze....