At some point you're going to want to anchor your boat, so let's take a look at what you'll
need.
You'll have an anchor on board that's big enough for the boat, of the right type, so
it'll hold in the bottom that you operate in, and you'll need enough anchor rode -- the
chain and the line combined -- to give you a 5:1 scope.
The scope is the distance from the bow of the boat to the bottom, say is 20 feet.
If you want a 5:1 scope, you'll need 100 feet of anchor rode.
And what we're going to be covering today is anchoring in fairly benign conditions for
a quick lunchbreak or maybe overnight with moderate wind and current.
So let's take a look at how it's done.
OK, we're approaching our anchorage now.
The depth of the water is 20 feet, so with a 5:1 scope, I'm going to let out 100 feet
of anchor rode.
When I get to the anchorage, I'm going to stop the boat, and I'm going to back down
until I have a little bit of sternway on, then my assistant in the bow is going to let
the anchor out until we have 100 feet of line out.
And then we're going to tie it off to the cleat, let it come tight, and then I'm going
to back down for 45 to 60 seconds to set the hook really well.
While I'm backing down, once the line is tight, I'm going to look off my beam, I'm going to
pick out a spot or a range on either beam to make sure that I'm not moving.
And I can also see based on buoys that are close to the boat or whatever's nearby.
But you want to make sure that anchor's holding.
OK, we're going to drop the anchor now.
We've got the bow into the current, we're going to let go of the stopper, we've got
some sternway on, and we're going to let out about 100 feet of anchor rode.
Here we've got 20 feet or so from the bow of the boat to the bottom.
So we're letting out the line now.
So we've got about 100 feet out now.
I'm going to take some of that sternway off so when Charles ties off the anchor line to
the cleat he'll be able to do so easily and safely.
OK, we're now tying off to the cleat.
You're taking most of the sternway off to make it easier.
We're tied off, now with the bow still headed in the right direction, right into the current,
I'm going to wait until I have slack out of the line, then I'm going to start backing
a little bit harder with both engines.
For this boat, I'm going to go back at about 1500 rpm, and what I'm doing right now is
I'm looking off the beam to see if I'm moving, either in relation to other objects or find
a range on the shore on either side.
The anchor appears to be holding from the bow, in other words, the line isn't jerking
around and I've got no motion on the beam here.
So we're good.
The anchor's been set.
I'm going to go a total of about 45 to 60 seconds to make sure it's well set, and then
we'll set our anchor line.
Now I'm going to take it out of gear, and we're ready for a bite of lunch.
OK, we just had a great lunchbreak and now we're getting ready to haul the anchor back
in, so we're going to drive ahead using the engines.
We're not going to use the windlass or somebody else sitting in the bow of the boat to haul
the boat toward the anchor.
We'll let the engines do that.
And then once we're up and down, directly over the anchor, we're going to tie the line
off to the cleat, and we're going to let the weight and the momentum of the boat break
the anchor free, then we're going to go back to either hauling the anchor in by hand or
using the windlass, depending on how your boat's equipped.
We're going to start driving ahead on the anchor.
We're going to haul it up.
Charles on the bow is pointing in the direction the anchor line is tending, and I'm going
to head right in that direction.
As soon as he's got some slack in the line, he'll take it off the cleat, and he'll direct
it back to the windlass and start heaving around the windlass.
But the engines are doing the work, not the windlass.
OK, we're directly over the anchor right now, give ourselves a little slack, tie off the
line to the cleat.
Good, it's tied off.
Now we're going to drive ahead on it and let the boat break the anchor free of the bottom.
The anchor's tending a little bit to port.
OK, we can feel it break free, so as soon as we get a little bit of slack there, we're
going to untie it from the cleat and pass it back to the windlass and heave the anchor
the rest of the way in.
The person in the bow is still pointing in the direction the anchor line is tending making
sure we're not drifting down on another boat or a buoy here.
Now we've got the chain coming through the hawsepipe.
We can hear that.
The last 15 feet is chain on this boat.
OK, it's all the way aboard, going to pass the stopper, and we're ready for sea.