Cruising at anchor

R

Roy & Dixie

New member
Monday we departed Daytona for a short 2 day cruise down the ICW to the south tip of Merritt Island, then back north up the Banana River, with a return through the Canaveral barge canal to the ICW north back to Daytona. The forecast called for a passing cold front with 20-40 percent chance of rain. As we reached the south tip of Merritt Isl. the forecast called for strong winds reaching gale force out of the N to NE. We anchored on the SE side of the Eaugallie causeway in 9 ft. The storm hit about 0200hr with the 35-40 K winds. By morning waves could be seen crashing against the north side of the causeway and sending water 20 ft into the air. We had only a light chop developed by the winds anchored close to the causeway, but felt every bit of the wind. Each evening as I bring the ships log up to date, I reset both my GPS receiver's trip odometers to 0mi. It was evident that we, nor any other boats would be underway in that part of Fla that day. We sat and watched my boat speed reach as high as 1.9mph as I sailed on the anchor. I figure I had @ 60 ft anchor line out to have 5/1 scope. I have @ 5ft chain on a 18lb Danforth anchor, which has never failed to hold. After 36 hr, we had traveled over 26 miles at an average speed of 0.7 mph. Our 2 day cruise turned into 4 days. We returned home with 1 can of chicken soup 1 slice of bread, and powered tang with which to make happy hr screw drivers.
 
In general, people who haven't been to the Southeast don't realize how severe those northern cold fronts can be. Before we took our trip around the East Coast, we thought that Florida was sunny, with an occasional thunderstorm in the summer. Boy, were we wrong. There's a lot of weather that passes through the Southeast in the fall and winter. And you have to find a safe spot.

Glad everything held. How was it sitting in a C-dory for a day and half, listening to the wind?

I spent a couple of weeks in Titusville Marina, whilst Judy visited her mother in Nevada. No storms like that, but we saw a Space Shuttle launch.

Boris
 
Roy & Dixie;
I enjoyed your "tale of the hook". Sounds like you had a good seaman's eye throughout your 'stay'. It sounds like your food plan was also very efficient.

I went back to your album and also enjoyed your photo journal of the ICW trip north.

Art
 
I noticed the same thing: much sailing around at anchor (although I did not keep track of the mileage :D). I got in the habit of putting out a second anchor at an angle to the first (i.e. a V out forward) and then tying the rodes together just forward of the roller*. Still sailed more than I'm used to, but it was much reduced (and tying the rodes together kept them from chafing on the roller ears).

(I realize this is probably already in most people's bag of tricks.)

Sunbeam

*Ultimately I don't plan to use the roller as my anchor fairlead, but I don't yet have an alternative set up.
 
Sunbeam":2mfzz2r9 said:
I noticed the same thing: much sailing around at anchor (although I did not keep track of the mileage :D). I got in the habit of putting out a second anchor at an angle to the first (i.e. a V out forward) and then tying the rodes together just forward of the roller*. Still sailed more than I'm used to, but it was much reduced (and tying the rodes together kept them from chafing on the roller ears).

(I realize this is probably already in most people's bag of tricks.)

Sunbeam

*Ultimately I don't plan to use the roller as my anchor fairlead, but I don't yet have an alternative set up.
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On the cruise ship Dixie and I ran, we used an anchor arrangement much as you describe. Even though almost 200 ft in length, the ship would sail badly on one anchor. Due to the weight of the ship, the anchor would be jerked loose often as it was turned by the wind to sail back in the opposite direction, especially in the Caribbean and Bahamas during the winter when the winds would blow 20+ mph 24/7. We anchored out most nights and would set one anchor, then power slowly 90 degrees across the wind, playing out double the required scope, lower the second anchor, then pull 1/2 the first anchor chain back in. This put a lot of strain on each anchor, but it was a steady, static strain, not one that was changing angle and jerking every few minutes. Our wind direction was almost always constant, so it worked well for us. I only had one anchor on the CD, but I sure thought about how nice two would have been.
 
localboy":2g0l75wo said:
Sounds like you need more chain.
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I have considered going to all chain, but then I would want a capstan and a way to clean the mud from the chain as I haul it in. With the line, I can haul it in by hand, shake it in the water as I do so to clean off any mud, and clean any mud off the anchor by pulling and dropping the anchor at the water surface a few times. Manual, but simple and reliable. After a few hours, the anchor line was black from the rubber chafed off the roller as the line slid back and forth, but there was no chafe of the anchor line. I simply paid out a few inches of line a couple of times. Since I anchor in mud or sand most of the time, I have not had a problem with the line at the anchor end being chafed or cut by coral or rocks so far.
 
Sea Wolf":2h9g7q6p said:
Roy and Dixie-

What was your gas mileage on your trip at anchor? :lol:

Quite a ride! :smiled

Joe. :teeth :thup
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If I had not reset my trip odometer and let that mileage add to my mpg calculations, my overall average would have been great on a 200 mi trip.
 
While far from an all-chain rode (which is what I am used to from other boats), I have 25' of chain. The boat still sails at anchor (especially on only one). I'm thinking it's just something that happens with a boat that is light, has no keel, and has quite a bit of windage.

(In contrast, the large, heavy, full-keeled sailboat with all chain sat still as a church at anchor most times.) (But then that was not trailerable, and could not sneak into half the "skinny" spots my 22 can :thup)
 
Sunbeam,

Surprised yours sails. Five to one rode? Kind of anchor and weight?

Anchoring in the lower Columbia, with tidal reversal, common to lose a little ground on a 180 degree reset, but we have coarse sand, most places. Folks around here seem to use more chain than I see described on C-BRATS, but 25 feet would be typical for 22 foot OB cruisers.

Does not sound like a kellet would help you.

http://cruising.coastalboating.net/Seam ... llets.html
 
AstoriaDave":3lju92dm said:
Sunbeam,

Surprised yours sails. Five to one rode? Kind of anchor and weight?
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Really? Is it uncommon with these boats? I was thinking it was par for the course, just considering the boat design compared to a heavy, keeled cruiser.

For the primary, I have a 15# Manson Supreme anchor, 25' of 1/4" G4 chain, and 200' of 1/2" 8-plait rope. The secondary is a ~11# Bruce clone, with 20' of 1/4" chain and around 250' of 1/2" three-strand nylon.

The times I was anchored during a wind event (waited out a few on Powell). I probably had around 6-to-1 scope or more. I don't have my rode marked yet, so that's an estimate. Water depths (there were two or three different anchorages) varied from about 12' to 20'. I add 4' of depth to cover the distance from the water's surface to the roller, and then figure scope from there. I would say I had around 125' to 150' of rode out on each anchor (in a V).

I never budged, in terms of dragging - even when there were some decent waves coming through the anchorage - but did sail a fair bit (much less with the two anchors out and the rodes lashed together). In fact, the Manson would generally bring up a good bit of the bottom as compared to the Bruce clone.

I'm still inclined to think it's just a characteristic of the boat, but I'm open to more experienced opinion since I still have relatively little experience with the 22. My reasoning is that there is really no "traction" in the form of a keel, the boat is really light, and there is quite a bit of windage with the pilot house (I remember that lighter sailboats with more rope than chain would sail a lot more than we would, with a heavy boat, full keel, and all chain).

PS: Perhaps the wind on Powell is more variable (direction wise) than someplace with more trade-wind like winds - that may account for some of it.
 
Roy and Dixie,I am wondering if setting a stern anchor to prevent swinging was an option for your situation?

I use a small danforth, aluminum type made by Fortress for this sometimes. It doesn't take as much room as anchors go, and is light.

Tom
 
The C Dory is very likely to sail at anchor. So are many other boats. In the right conditions my full keel, 35 ton ketch would sail significantly at anchor--the Cal 46 would sail at anchor--about 18 tons and modified keel. Fin keel sailboats sail at anchor--as do most motor boats. The kellet will not help--unless it is very heavy--heavier than you would want in this size boat. You can try riding to two bow anchors. A stern anchor may help to some degree.
 
I just swapped out the 15ft of chain that the boat came with, for 50ft plus 200ft 1/2" nylon. In the shallow anchorages that we have down here, it makes a world of difference. The boat tries to skate sideways, but is dragged up short by the chain dragging on the bottom.

As for muddy chain, I use to have a cylinder like chain brush that hooked onto the boat hook and did a great job of cleaning the chain as it was brought in. Think I bought it at WM.

As for the second anchor off of the stern, it works well as long as the tide or wind doesn't turn and set you across the waves. This always happened to me at 2:00 A M. Sea anchor, same deal.
 
C-Cakes routinely sails at anchor in anything but very light winds. To reduce it I run a taut line from a rolling hitch on the anchor rode about 6-7 ft below the anchor pulpit to a breast cleat on either side of the boat. I draw it tight enough to pull the rode into an obtuse angle and cleat it off. This seems to reduce the sailing quite a bit bit since the pull is offset from the bow.
 
AstoriaDave":1ikd1i87 said:
Doh. Well, now I know what sailing at anchor means. Ignore my remarks, Sunbeam. :oops:
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Whew, my boat's not defective :wink

Good thread -- one can always learn more about anchoring.
 
primative":1q2hoc8x said:
Roy and Dixie,I am wondering if setting a stern anchor to prevent swinging was an option for your situation?

I use a small danforth, aluminum type made by Fortress for this sometimes. It doesn't take as much room as anchors go, and is light.

Tom
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I have used a stern anchor with one bow anchor on other boats, not the CD. In a narrow cove with a 30' cruising sail boat the stern anchor would eliminate swinging while anchored, but I did not have a strong wind shift. For a while I would use a heavy bow and stern anchor on a 207', 5 deck cruise ship in the Virgin Islands. One morning the 20 knot wind had shifted 90 degrees and I was locked between the 2 anchors without enough chain left to pull the ship close enough to either anchor to break the anchor loose. And this was in a crowded anchorage. I finally fought the beam wind enough using main engines, bow thruster, and windless to break the stern anchor loose. I never did that again with a large vessel.

As I noted above, I began to set the second bow anchor, then pull the ship back 1/2 way to the first anchor. I would use twin engines and rudders to keep the ship up between the 2 anchors with the ship slightly across the wind while the windless pulled the bow 1/2 way back to the first anchor. I would have both anchor chains tight and the ship's bow up between the 2 anchors as I completed anchoring. This eliminated almost all the "V" in the anchor lines and the bow could not swing either left or right. The ship would act as a weather vane in small wind shifts, but would not sail around. You could do this with 2 anchors on any size boat. Eliminate as much of the "V" as possible with the bow up between the 2 anchors and I think you could eliminate a CD sailing while at anchor.

On this ICW trip I had only 1 anchor aboard, an 18 lb Danforth, and unlimited swinging room. This did give me an ever changing 360 degree view of the area as I sailed back and forth for 24hr in the 35-45 knot wind :xlol
 
We don't sail about as much as other cd's I've seen. It may be due to the 45ft of 1/4 hi test chain in the rode? Or the load we carry? I used Barry's suggestion one time also of pulling the rode to one side. I haven't tried a traditional kellet yet but that is a way to slow the swing perhaps. I wouldn't feel too bad about our light boats swinging though. I watched in amazement a 80 ft motor yacht do major big swings in only 25 knots last summer. It was appalling to see something that size skating around like a dinghy one of those shallow draft 3 story pilot house plus canvas top yachts. It looked uncomfortable
George
 
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