Here is the scene.
James Bond arrives at a 20-foot-high sheer stone wall between him and the continuation of his quest for the information that will save the world from destruction.
Ever resourceful, he whips out a small grapnel (probably part of his wrist watch), whirls it around a couple of times for effect, and launches it over the wall. We cut to the other side of the wall where the grapnel clatters against the smooth stones, then hooks on the back edge of the top as 007 hauls in on the
line. Perfect.
Up the wall James goes, pulling himself hand over hand up the anchored line. When he reaches the top, he stands, turns around, and with the line still in his hand, steps backward off the other side….
No, wait. That won’t work. If James doesn’t pick up his grapnel and rehook it on the front edge of the wall, this is going to be a short movie. My point is so obvious I should be able to stop right here but, hey, I get paid by the word, so spend a couple more minutes with me so I can pay the rent.
A little exposition is needed to explain why I feel compelled to write on this subject. After nearly a decade of living ashore, Olga and I are back aboard and far from our home mooring, which has put us in direct contact with the cruising class of 2002-2003. I have been astonished—no other word will serve—at how often we have heard tales of dragging anchor, how regularly we have witnessed dragging when a squall passes over the anchorage, any anchorage.
The ability to attach the boat securely to the bottom is a basic tenet of cruising. Except in extraordinary circumstances,
anchor dragging should never happen.
Never.
So what is going on that has made anchoring uncertain. It cannot be the anchor design. Most boats are using anchor types that have been around for at least 40 years. There are some newer designs in use, but these have gained popularity by their comparative showings in head-to-head testing against the standard types. Bottom conditions can account for greater difficulty in setting an anchor, but not for an increasing incidence of anchor dragging from one year to the next. That only leaves operator error.
It pains me to malign my fellow cruiser, but the primary cause for anchor dragging becoming epidemic appears to be laziness. Throughout the Bahamas this season in anchoring circumstances that clearly required two anchors, we watched boat after boat after boat lay a single hook. Most of the time they get away with it. Most of the time you might also get away with crossing the street without looking, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
Maybe I am being too harsh.
Maybe it is not laziness but bad advice that has led to the preference for a single
anchor.
Virtually everyone cruising the Bahamas this season (and presumably for the last several seasons) is using one or more of the Explorer Chartbooks.
These are indeed excellent, allowing bolder exploration of the Bahamas than the previously just as ubiquitous Yachtsman’s Guide.
Unfortunately, the Explorer Chartbook seems to suggest, perhaps unintentionally, that two
anchors are rarely needed.
No one wants to expend the effort to put down that second hook if it isn’t really needed, so….
When do you need a second anchor? A second anchor is required almost anytime that you expect the pull on the anchor to reverse. The only exception is when you are anchored in clear, deep sand with plenty of swinging room, and even then, your anchor can be at risk of fouling on the reversing rode, which will prevent resetting and result in dragging.
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"When you set an anchor, you should have confidence in its holding power only as long as the pull is fair. " |
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An
anchor is not a mooring.
When you set an
anchor, you should have confidence in its holding power only as long as the pull is fair.
The idea that it is OK to sit to one
anchor in a tidal current is ludicrous.
When the tide reverses, the
anchor trips, and the security of your boat depends on how it resets.
Plow and claw type
anchors (CQR,
Delta, Bruce, Spade) are pretty good about resetting in sand or mud, but not in hard bottoms. Lightweight types (Danforth,
Fortress) are as likely to flip as to turn, and the divot they take out of the bottom can keep the flukes pointed upward.
This occurs more often than you might imagine. I have personally rescued more than one unattended drifting boat dragging a clod-fouled lightweight
anchor.
There are two additional reasons to use two anchors in tidal currents. The second reason is that the second anchor puts the boat to sleep. Without it the boat tends to gyrate wildly around the anchor when wind and tide oppose each other, which is likely to occur twice a day. A boat sitting to the tide with the breeze aft blows forward until it reaches the end of the rode, which turns the boat broadside to the current. Now the current has the upper hand, and the boat sweeps back over the anchor until it fetches up at the end of the rode, and the cycle starts all over again. These are typically great circular sweeps, not just up and back. At the beautiful but swift Cambridge Cay anchorage in the Exumas, we watched out-of-synch boats fending off as recriminations about who anchored after whom led to angry exchanges between cruisers that should have been friends.
Which brings up reason number three.
The idea that any cruiser can lay out 150 feet of
line and lay exclusive claim to an inviolable 300 foot circle in a small anchorage flies in the face of everything cruising is about.
It is inconsiderate to put down a single
anchor in crowded anchorages.
Put down two
anchors, one forward and one aft, and your swinging circle is cut down to just over twice the length of your boat, leaving room for others.
Current is not the only reason for a second anchor. A second anchor is a wise precaution in unsettled weather. Putting down a mooring—one anchor forward and the second one aft—prevents a wind shift from a passing squall from tripping your anchor. Even when the shift is not 180 degrees, the pull on your anchors remains fair, tending to dig them in rather than pull them out.
When dropping the hook for a day aboard off the beach, one anchor is likely to be plenty, but if you want to sleep soundly at night, you need to know that the pull on your anchor will remain fair. If you know it won’t, or if you are simply uncertain, play it safe and lay out that second anchor. You won’t save the world, but you will save yourself a lot of anxiety and someday perhaps even your boat.
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