T&T: Anchor watch

[Milt Baker]

Jeff,

You're right that I'm missing an alarm.  In a dicey anchoring situation, I can 
also turn on the Furuno NavNet right beside my bunk, showing the MOB location 
of the anchor.  I can also put a circle around the anchor position and set an
alarm to go off if we go outside the circle.  Truth be told, I rarely do that 
because we typically anchor in the afternoon, and we have given the boat at 
least six hours of saoking the hook before we turn in, so I usually have high 
confidence in the anchor's ability to hold its ground.  If we're expecting a 
serious blow or bad front to pass over, I'll usually set the alarm clock to 
get up for the frontal passage.  I did that in Croatia last summer when a front 
brought a 65-knot thunderstorm and was happy to be sitting in the pilot house 
watching everything.  We didn't drag, but I was awake and ready just in case.

Without a serious blow the risk of dragging after six hours with good ground tackle 
well dug in a good bottom seems very, very low.  It's one I'm willing to accept.

Different strokes, eh?

--Milt  

Jeffrey wrote:

You're missing an alarm.

The MOB way of checking on an anchor is fine.  And maybe 40ft of error  
is something you're willing to accept.  For me, at 3:00 am, I want to  
know the moment there is any dragging at all.  I want the maximum  
amount of time needed to start the engines, get my bearings, and make  
adjustments in a safe way.  And I want the alarm to go off right in my  
stateroom where it will wake me up.