The Soft American

[Roger Long]

Ok, Ok, I can feel the snicker packets coming right back over the Internet. I’m at a marina, Utsch’s in Cape May. It’s not because of the Northeaster with 50 knot winds they are talking about for early tomorrow morning; I’ve got the big Guardian anchor and 120 feet of chain down in the bilge. It’s not comfort; I’m more comfortable on an anchor than listening to dock creak and loud parties on other boats. No, it’s fear, in this case of, …The Americans.

Let’s back up to last night. Oh, the marina welcome bag with a bottle of wine, some Biscotti, and information on the area was pretty nice. As I said to a new friend who retreated in here with me, “I always wondered how the other half lives.”

Anyway, yesterday: The forecast wind never arrived. We all sat around on a reasonably warm and pleasant day. I rowed around the mooring and chatted with people. I persuaded Don, a new sailor who just bought a boat in CT and is making his first learning cruise home to Houston, TX, to try setting out a stern anchor. I told him that it was not just for comfort in the current, he could adjust it to keep his boat from sailing on her anchor and worrying it out of its set. It would also be there as a backup if his main anchor let go.

Late in the afternoon, a delightful and rugged Canadian couple who spent eight years rebuilding their boat and are now sailing it to their new home in Panama invited me over for dinner. We had just finished our pleasant dinner when we heard a roar. I looked out the companionway and the wind was starting to blow suddenly. She said, “20, 30…”

I said, “I’ve got to go.”

I heard her say. “40”, as I was climbing down into the dinghy.

Rowing back was an adventure. The current was fortunately with me and the side with the boarding ladder was in the lee but it was quite clear that I was going to have to make it on the very first try. It brought back memories of some of the short strip airports I used to land at.

The Coast Guard rescue boat zoomed past close abeam as I climbed aboard and I could see that many of the boats in the anchorage had their running lights on and the pattern of all the lights was changing quickly.

Since I hadn’t been there to tend to the stern anchor properly, Strider was now broadside to the wind and the strains were enormous. It’s the first time I have seen three strand nylon creeping slowly through a cleat with the standard turn and two hitches. The boat was bucking like she was underway in a seaway.

Someone had come in and anchored just to leeward of me and it was going to be a mess if I dragged. I let out stern anchor which brought me closer and closer to the other boat. Better I figured to be frighteningly close than to drag down on it. I had a boat length to spare when I had eased off enough on the stern anchor to bring her nearly head to wind which eased things considerably.

I carefully led the stern anchor line up around the boat through a bow cleat, laying it inside the toe rail and checking each foot to be sure that nothing would snag and making it fast forward. It was still like a iron bar but a kick with the engine (which I had started warming up the instant I climbed aboard) gained me enough slack to cast it off the stern cleat. Strider instantly swung into a comfortable lie with an anchor off each bow. I ran the stern anchor line back through the block on the midships cleat to the jib sheet winch, slacked it way off to lie briefly on the single main anchor long enough to cast it off the cleat completely, and then cranked until the boat was lying midway between the anchors and far enough to the side of the other boat to give both of us a little peace of mind.

Strider was now lying reasonably easily and felt quite secure. I could turn my attention to the chaos on the rest of the anchorage. I could see by the Coast Guard’s floodlight that the fellow I had persuaded to put out a stern anchor way lying by the stern and dragging slowly toward the beach. I patted myself on the back for that one. Without the second anchor buying him some time, he would have already been a salvage situation.

The two big ketches in the anchorage, one a subject of my previous post, had both dragged and were right up to the rocks with engines running. The both got out to clear water and then started attempting to anchor. They would find about the farthest inshore position that the boat should end up in, feed out some chain, put tension on it immediately, and start dragging back. Then they would pull it in and motor out to try a slightly different spot. One ketch finally got itself secured and the other then started the strangest odyssey I’ve seen in a while.

A fellow from the anchored ketch motored over to the other and climbed aboard. The boat then made a couple attempts to anchor. For some reason, they seemed to need to make a 360 turn in each place they tried and the apparent lack of understanding of the leeway of a big shoal draft boat in a strong wind and the effects of the current made it a hair raising thing to watch. They passed within a boat length astern of the fellow riding to his stern anchor and I heard him yelling at them on the radio.

Over and over they attempted to anchor using the method they tried unsuccessfully the morning before. I guess they didn’t want to try the one I told them which worked the very first time because of the fellow getting his hand mangled in the winch. Handling the chain and windlass is a completely separate issue than the advice I was giving them. If you can’t safely take the strain of the rode at some point in the process, you are never going to come to anchor.

Eventually, they seemed to give up and started a tour of the anchorage like a small child seeking succor and comfort, in and out among the boats, back and forth in the channel. Strider now felt secure enough for me to turn in but I couldn’t stop watching this new “Flying Dutchman”. There wasn’t much I could do if she came my way but I wasn’t going to sleep waiting for the possible crash. Sure enough, one of her excursions took her so close to my bow that her keel must have been just a couple feet above my anchor rodes. I screamed unprintable bloody murder at them. They attempted to anchor a bit up the harbor from me, unsuccessfully again. A while later, they finally got the hook to set about 100 yards away back down the harbor on the other side of me and I turned in for a sound sleep.

I woke up this morning and no one was on the rocks. One of the Canadians cruising in a small centerboarder or swing keel sloop did go up on the beach farther down but was able to push himself off by wading in. The big ketch was exactly in the direction the strong winds forecast for tomorrow morning are expected to blow from. I noticed on my row up the harbor to talk to my friend who had been saved by his stern anchor that she was still riding on fair weather scope.

Don and I decided that we could probably ride out the coming weather with a full day to prepare our gear but that we couldn’t risk sharing the anchorage with these two loose cannons in the dark. I’m due for a resupply, laundry, and I would like to see some of the town of Cape May. It all added up to an easy decision so I’m here at a comfortable marina dock waiting for Don to have a nap so we can go up and take a look at the town. I spoke to my dinner hosts on the way out and I won’t be surprised to see them come in before long. They were also quite concerned about the two clueless ketches that will be just upwind of them early tomorrow morning when it is expected to be blowing harder than it did last night.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Anchor follies

Roger, truly fascinating. any chance you can get them a West Marine catalog and ask them to read the West Advsior on How to Anchor.

Heck, they can find it online, right here: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...151&catalogId=10001&page=Anchoring-Techniques

Less difficult, perhaps, than printing out cards!

It remains a complete mystery to me how people can buy boats big enough to live aboard and still not know how to use a parking brake.

Good luck.

 

[Roger Long]

Re: Anchor follies

Uh Oh, guess who is in the marina a few slips down. Well, as my friends said, if they were SBO readers (or readers of anything), they would know how to anchor.

Darn, I could have saved a couple hundred bucks and enjoyed a night at anchor in a nor'easter. Oh well, I had a lovely walk into Cape May and am hosting a dinner party for the Canadian couple and Don with the stern anchor.

Got to go start cooking.

 

[thinwater]

Snicker, snicker...

Nah, a marina every so often can be rational. And it's far easier to get to the laundry (near the Wa Wa) and the Acme (at the end of the town center mall).

Mostly, it strikes me like a lesson in why to avoid stern anchors. Oh, I use use 2 now and then, but VERY seldom from the stern, since something always changes. Perhaps I know the holes in Cape May well enough to avoid the space problem that got you.

And a lesson watching who anchors nearby!

 

[TomY]

I wonder if by the time you return up north next spring Roger, you might find no country has eliminated the clueless sailor.

On our first trip down the coast, we were one of them for sure. I lost 2 anchors in Cape May as I buoyed them and cast off to run for a marina! I didn't drag(there,...) but to this day we refer to a big blow in there as "May Day". Many like us were new to this "cruising" stuff.

The only boat that hit us on that trip, was from Canada, and that was in the Exumas. Amazingly, they too came from Lake Champlain which is where we sail out of back then. Great folks. New like us.

This won't be your first "amateur hour" to report I suspect.

I think you're seeing the flight of the snowbirds, many of which come out of our lakes in the US inland for their first salt water experience. The more experienced snowbirds, are already far south.

 

[MetricMountie]

The Canadian Couple & The Anchors

I don't know for sure if the Canadian couple would be from St. Andrews, New Brunswick but if so say Hi to Ray and Heather from Karl and Mary Ellen and also wish them all our best on a great trip.

 

[Roger Long]

say Hi to Ray and Heather

That's them. They just left after a most enjoyable dinner and gam. All my guests were going to go back and read my this blog entry after our long discussions about the events of last night. I'm sure they will see this and your greetings almost as I post this.

 

[Roger Long]

I use use 2 now and then, but VERY seldom from the stern, since something always changes.

Absolutely, a stern anchor must be tended. My primary purpose in deploying from the stern was to keep the boat head to wind with the current changes so that the cabin heater would draw well and the motion would be comfortable. I converted back and forth from bow / stern to Bahamas style a couple of times over the two days. It was a good learning experience carrying out those evolutions under great strain and in the dark. Very satisfying to have done it without a snarl or major hitch.

The current is strong enough in this anchorage that I saw two boats doing repeated 360 degree swings around their anchors in a brisk wind. A big ketch and a sloop were both going around their anchors about as fast as you could have made them do under power. That puts a big variable strain on the anchor and increases the chance of it breaking out.

Talking to Don about his dragging, it sounds to me like the anchor broke out with a huge ball of the very cohesive mud in this excellent holding ground and simply couldn't reset because ball shapes are not very good hooks. It didn't reset until it had bumped over enough bottom to knock some of the mud off. In bottom like this, it's important to keep the anchor from breaking out and the second anchor to control swinging and sailing around helps with that.

 

[Roger Long]

We're even having a storm surge with this Northeaster.

There is no one out in the anchorage. If there was, they are probably up on shore at the head of the harbor now.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Yep, we were at Utsch's a couplea' days too. Used their bikes to haul groceries. About that anchoring Roger. Do you use a weight or kellet to help with the hold, esp. if Bahama style? I never have with all chain, never felt the need. But I have used a float over the anchor. Seemed like a good idea with helping the crew steer me over the anchor. Is that a bad practice?

P.S. your journey is making mine seem boring. Maybe its the time of year.

 

[thinwater]

Absolutely, a stern anchor must be tended. My primary purpose in deploying from the stern was to keep the boat head to wind with the current changes so that the cabin heater would draw well and the motion would be comfortable. I converted back and forth from bow / stern to Bahamas style a couple of times over the two days. It was a good learning experience carrying out those evolutions under great strain and in the dark. Very satisfying to have done it without a snarl or major hitch.

The current is strong enough in this anchorage that I saw two boats doing repeated 360 degree swings around their anchors in a brisk wind. A big ketch and a sloop were both going around their anchors about as fast as you could have made them do under power. That puts a big variable strain on the anchor and increases the chance of it breaking out.

Talking to Don about his dragging, it sounds to me like the anchor broke out with a huge ball of the very cohesive mud in this excellent holding ground and simply couldn't reset because ball shapes are not very good hooks. It didn't reset until it had bumped over enough bottom to knock some of the mud off. In bottom like this, it's important to keep the anchor from breaking out and the second anchor to control swinging and sailing around helps with that.

All true enough. I've seen enough mud balls that I never bet on resetting; I'm not going to brag-up my new Manson!

I suppose the difference in my expereince is sailing a multihull.

• In Cape May I anchor further west, between the Corinthian Yacht Club and the Fishermans Memorial. There is very little current there. There is also only 4-7 feet of water at low tide.
• I don't worry about keel wraps so much. The draft is less, I have a heavy link at the apex of the bridle, and I use mostly chain when this is a problem. The shape of the keel is not conducive to wrapping. However,it is possible to get the rode down the middle (between the hulls, but pointing aft!) on a careless down wind set or when the wind is light and then grows. That can be VERY annoying to unwind (grab the rode with a boat hook from the sugar scoops and attach a line with rolling hitch, take the strain on a winch, disconnect the bridle and run out enough rode to bring the rode to one side at deck level, and then release the temporary line to the winch).

 

[Roger Long]

Do you use a weight or kellet to help with the hold, esp. if Bahama style?

I carried one for a long time but never used it. I took it off when Mainsail IIRC presented a convincing analysis that it wouldn't increase ultimate holding power because the rode would still come straight. I can believe it seeing the strains I did in the last couple of days. The maybe degree or two of scope reduction wouldn't be worth the risk of handling a heavy object over the bow and the possibility of chafe.

I've always wished my boat could carry all chain but after this week I'm liking more the flexibility and ease of working with my nylon rodes and 30 foot chain leaders.

The word now is that the fellow who lost the end of his finger evidently had his hand on the chain for some unknown reason and accidentally stepped on the foot switch in the dark. This was early in the morning after an overnight (or maybe longer) passage and on anchoring attempt 8 or 9. That's when mistakes happen.

 

[thinwater]

I've always wished my boat could carry all chain but after this week I'm liking more the flexibility and ease of working with my nylon rodes and 30 foot chain leaders.

The word now is that the fellow who lost the end of his finger evidently had his hand on the chain for some unknown reason and accidentally stepped on the foot switch in the dark. This was early in the morning after an overnight (or maybe longer) passage and on anchoring attempt 8 or 9. That's when mistakes happen.

I very nearly fed my finger to a windlass when I fell against a foot switch (kneeling) in a rolly anchorage; I instinctively balled up my hand and then fell towards my elbow, which save serious damage. I've learned to be more careful, but I'd prefer a hand switch mounted on on the rail.

Another problem with all-chain is the lack of shock absorption. This is a story of a boat lost, perhaps in some part because of a chain rode:
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-easily-things-can-change.html
I recently switched to an all-chain rode, and the ride is certainly firmer, even though I use a 15-foot bridle. I switched to all-chain when I bought a new anchor, mostly because the old chain was rusting and all chain is more dependable on the windlass. In retrospect, and having used both on the same boat, I am no fan of all-chain, at least not where sharp bottoms are not a risk. Your story also pointed to problems I've not yet faced with all-chain.

 

[Benny17441]

We americans are not soft, we are just masters at adapting to the current technological advances. Ever since the invention of the powercord we have been flocking to those floating power stations so that we can operate all that equipment that boat builders put in them. It is just incidental that in those places you can usually have a warm meal, take a hot shower, do your laundry, purchase fuel and provisions, wash the boat and use their transportation. Oh, forgot, also get a good night sleep. I'm sure Columbus would have been awed at how soft we are. Among our oldest friends I am sure there are a good number that enjoy doing things the way they used to do them 30-40 years ago but the rest of the hardy folks, honking their own horn, are usually on a tight budget or just cheap. Some of the most extreme cases never set foot on land and watch the world go by from the cockpit of their boats. They could save a lot of trouble by anchoring somewhere near home port and I bet the view would be quite similar.

 

[Tom J]

Glad to you are safe and comfortable at Utsch's. Cape May is a great town to visit. Everything is within walking distance, especially the great restaurants.
Always a concern with us is a crowded anchorage, especially in bad weather. It's difficult to let out enough scope, and there is no telling how well the boat beside you is anchored. We had a thunderstorm hit us while we were anchored in the Back River, just off Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Gusts hit 55 knots, but fortunately we had deployed 90' of chain in 12' of water, and there were no other boats around. Putting the engine in gear helped, but the water got so rough, I thought we were going to hit the bottom. I'll never forget the sense of relief I felt when the wind speed indicator showed ONLY 35 knots. That roar you described as the wind picked up is what got me scrambling into the cockpit and starting the engine before I sat in the helm seat.
We've been in the same situation with the bow and stern anchors, and even the Bahamian anchoring setups. Our experiance is that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, so a constant anchor watch is warranted in both situations. I've gotten pretty good at switching an anchor rode from the stern to the bow, and vice versa.
Stay safe and enjoy the voyage.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Sentinels or kellets

Depending on the conditions and the anchorages, one size does not fit all in terms of their use. They CAN be very helpful.

I had this discussion with John Catalina 36 over on the C36 message board about a particular anchorage at China Camp on San Pablo Bay:

I had another experience that I thought others might benefit from.

A couple of weekends ago, we anchored off of China Camp in the North Bay of SF Bay. Anybody who's been in this area will know that the current really rips through here. We had motored to the beach at the time that the tide changed, so we weren't on the boat when it swung. Somehow it got caught up against the rode, so that when we got back on the boat the rode was running from the bow down the (port) side of the boat to the stern.

I tried to pull it free but the current was too strong. I tried to pull the stern of the boat around with my dinghy but couldn't do that as I only have a 2hp outboard. I was afraid to motor around as I didn't know how close the line passed to the prop. I tried sailing off, but that didn't work either.

I figured that we could just leave it as is and wait until the tide shifted again. So I stretched out in the hammock I'd stretched out from the mast to the forestay. Nice and relaxing, bouncing on the waves.

After a half hour, though, I suddenly noticed that the movement of the hammock had suddenly changed. On sitting up I saw that we were dragging anchor. I tried releasing the anchor rode, but I couldn't.

On we drifted, down towards the other boats. It was a really helpless feeling as we passed one boat after another. Then a guy in a dinghy with a larger outboard came up and offered help. We tied a line from our stern to his dinghy and he was able to pull our stern around to the point where we could drift free of the line and I started up our motor, pulled our anchor and re set it.

My two biggest mistakes: (1) I should have thought of running my spare anchor out and trying to kedge us around and even if I hadn't been able to, at least I'd have had a second anchor; (2) I should have tied a buouy to my line and had a knife ready to cut the rode in case we started dragging anchor.

Anyway, lessons learned. Maybe this experience will help somebody else in a similar fix.

****************
I always use a sentinel when I anchor up there. The sentinel is NOT used to keep the anchor down, but rather to keep the rode down when the boat swings. Unless it's blowing like stink when the wind shifts, it works. I've had keel wraps up there myself, before I started using the sentinel, although I've always had lots of rode out since there's so much room. I guess I was fortunate enough not to have dragged, but the motion really s*cks. Our sentinel is an 8# mushroom anchor on its own separate rode, connected with a carabiner. Most folks recommend the heftier 15# model, but ours has worked for the past 13 years.

[added] The trick with the sentinel is that when the current reverses there is usually (I say usually) little pull on the rode, so the sentinel drops the rode below the keel as the boat swings (unless it's blowing like stink when the current reverses).

Anchor normally. Attach carabiner to the shackle at the top of the sentinel and another rode to the sentinel shackle, keeping the carbiner free to move. Clip the carabiner to the main anchor rode. Drop the sentinel with its own separate rode and slide it down the anchor rode, about the depth of the water, not much more (figure high water, it'll either sit in the mud at low water - good with a mushroom sentinel anyway, or keep the rode down at higher water). Tie off the sentinel rode to one of your bow cleats. I do it off the port side, don't use the second anchor roller for the sentinel. I keep the sentinel, it's shackle, the carabiner and its own rode in the port locker. The rode is only about twenty to twenty five feet long, 3/8" 3 strand. Our anchor rode is 1/2". The carabiner is there to have a big enough opening to slide down the anchor rode, a shackle itself is too small. Makes it much easier to set and retrieve also.
*************
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Are you saying this:

You leave out about the amount of rode on the sentinel as the water depth at high tide. You clip the carabiner to the end of the anchor and around the rode of the main anchor line. In other words, the end of the sentinel is right along the end of the main anchor line and allowed to, in effect, slide up and down that rode by virtue of the fact that the carabiner is around the anchor line.)

As I'm visualizing it, this will in effect keep the anchor rode going more vertically straight down to the bottom and then horizontal along the bottom.
***************
Exactly, you got it. When there's no wind, what you said will happen. When the wind picks up, the sentinel will rise, but (hopefully, and based on my experiences at China Camp) when the currents reverse, the sentinel will drop down again and keep your rode from fouling your keel.

 

[thinwater]

Sounds like "Two Years Before the Mast"

Some of the most extreme cases never set foot on land and watch the world go by from the cockpit of their boats. They could save a lot of trouble by anchoring somewhere near home port and I bet the view would be quite similar.

The captain asked the young sailor-to-be why he wanted to ship aboard a friegher; clearly he was of the upper classes and sailing was a different and rough world. The sailor-to-be said "to see the world." The captain pointed him towards the harbor entrance, asked him to stare beteen the two points, and expalined that they were nearly always at sea and that it always looked just like that.

That's just about how I feel about long passages. The interesting stuff is on shore, with sailing in between. However, often it is more relaxing to anchor out and make those trips by dingy; it's quieter. Perhaps those soft Canadians just can't deal with the unending halyard slap in a marina!

 

[sea_casper]

Cape May Boats

the unending halyard slap in a marina!

One observation we made about Cape May, on our way North in June, was that 99% of the boats there were power boats, mostly sport fisherman types, very few sailboats were seen, even at anchor. It was a sharp contrast to everywhere else on our trip north from Florida.
Faux'castle's journey North

 

[Benny17441]

There is a lot of sports fishing go out of Cape May so there are always a lot of powerboats. There are a couple of marinas that cater exclusively to them. Love Utch, they are a sailors marina.