I saw a reference somewhere to the cove I’ve been staying in every night in Halifax being an unsuitable anchorage due to heavy kelp. Perhaps that’s why I’ve had it to myself for five nights. The “Cruising Guide to the Nova Scotia Coast” also doesn’t list it as an option despite its good protection from the southwesters, beautiful view of the city, and handiness to the waterfront.
Although I’ve had kelp on the anchor every morning, I have found the holding ground to be excellent. I particularly found it so the night of a frontal passage when the wind came hard out of the north in the wee hours turning it into a lee shore with a considerable fetch. I was up letting out more scope at 0230 and spent the rest of the dark hours watching shore marks and the GPS. I don’t think the anchor moved an inch despite the 180 degree swing.
I’m a great believer in yanking on a nylon anchor rode in a boat of modest size. You can tell a lot by the feel. If the anchor is just hooked on a kelp plant, you can feel the give of the stem and roots and sometimes pull it completely loose. An anchor skittering over hard bottom will transmit the little impacts right up the line. Sometimes, the yanking will set a reluctant anchor as the impacts of the pulls drive point in. Try pushing in a nail sometime with a hammer. When I’ve put my anchor down in this cove, I’ve felt that sudden, solid, grab of good ground every time.
Even though the anchor didn’t move, the swing of the considerable scope I had out had put me pretty close to the edge of my comfort zone as far as depth was concerned. The trees were mighty close and the boat was pitching heavily enough to throw spray from the bows as the waves rolled down the three and a half mile fetch.
So, I got to do the singlehanded anchor retrieval from a lee shore in a boat without a windlass. I’ve often taken to rode to the main halyard winch in these situations but it’s a lot of work. I opted this time to use the engine. Motor slowly forward and turn to one side immediately so you can see the anchor line and drive out around the radius of the scope until it’s nearly abeam. Then turn the bow quickly towards the anchor, put the engine in neutral, and run up and pull in as much line as you can while she blows down. It’s not the difficulty so much as the repetition. It took me about ten cycles to get the line up and down.
The danger is having the anchor break out and drag prematurely so you have to keep a close eye on your position. No problem this time and all that worrying back and forth made for an easy break out. I stowed line between each cycle which took no more time overall and resulted in much less to do once the boat was underway and pitching even more heavily for powering into the waves.
My nightly presence must have been noted because, on my last evening, I saw a sailboat of about the same size motoring into the cove. I figured it would be a show when I saw them swing into the wind directly upwind of me which doesn’t demonstrate a complete grasp of the finer points. Sure enough, the man let the anchor go with some frantic arm waving at the woman at the helm while the boat was still moving ahead enough to run about a boat length over the anchor.
They fell back to about 4:1 scope and put some turns on the cleat. More arm waving and some steering back and forth. Even with that minimal scope, they should have gotten a bit of a hold according to what I’ve felt every night. The man finally got the woman directed over the anchor which he pulled up and they disappeared around the point headed towards the yacht club and moorings, their bow festooned with a big ball of vegetation.
I didn’t actually realize what I was doing right until I saw this little fiasco. It’s one of those things that shows the value of good practice even when you aren’t fully foreseeing the results. I always try to be sure the boat is absolutely stopped when I start to let the anchor go. I let it down easily until I feel the bottom take the weight of the anchor and then stop until the boat starts to drift back. I then try to let out the chain at a speed that matches the drift so it lays out along the bottom. I then start letting out my line.
By insuring that my anchor is going straight down when lowered, I am creating a high probability that it will penetrate down between kelp and other large plants to reach clear bottom. Having it moving along the bottom as it’s lowered turns it into a harvester so that, by the time it reaches the bottom, it is a ball of weed, too cushioned by what it’s picked up, to bite into the bottom effectively. Think of parachuting into a stand of trees. You are much more likely to reach the ground if you go straight down than if the wind is carrying you along as you descend.
It’s still blowing pretty briskly tonight but the lighthouse on Georges Island is still exactly lined up with the corner of a building and the vertical line of lights in the corner rooms. You get great anchor range marks in cities. I’ll sleep well tonight.
Georges Island, by the way, was the prison for most of the Acadians prior to their deportation. Conditions were terrible and many died. Almost every Cajun in Louisiana probably has an ancestor who spent a horrible time on this little hump of land in Halifax Harbor than now tells me my anchor is firmly set.
Although I’ve had kelp on the anchor every morning, I have found the holding ground to be excellent. I particularly found it so the night of a frontal passage when the wind came hard out of the north in the wee hours turning it into a lee shore with a considerable fetch. I was up letting out more scope at 0230 and spent the rest of the dark hours watching shore marks and the GPS. I don’t think the anchor moved an inch despite the 180 degree swing.
I’m a great believer in yanking on a nylon anchor rode in a boat of modest size. You can tell a lot by the feel. If the anchor is just hooked on a kelp plant, you can feel the give of the stem and roots and sometimes pull it completely loose. An anchor skittering over hard bottom will transmit the little impacts right up the line. Sometimes, the yanking will set a reluctant anchor as the impacts of the pulls drive point in. Try pushing in a nail sometime with a hammer. When I’ve put my anchor down in this cove, I’ve felt that sudden, solid, grab of good ground every time.
Even though the anchor didn’t move, the swing of the considerable scope I had out had put me pretty close to the edge of my comfort zone as far as depth was concerned. The trees were mighty close and the boat was pitching heavily enough to throw spray from the bows as the waves rolled down the three and a half mile fetch.
So, I got to do the singlehanded anchor retrieval from a lee shore in a boat without a windlass. I’ve often taken to rode to the main halyard winch in these situations but it’s a lot of work. I opted this time to use the engine. Motor slowly forward and turn to one side immediately so you can see the anchor line and drive out around the radius of the scope until it’s nearly abeam. Then turn the bow quickly towards the anchor, put the engine in neutral, and run up and pull in as much line as you can while she blows down. It’s not the difficulty so much as the repetition. It took me about ten cycles to get the line up and down.
The danger is having the anchor break out and drag prematurely so you have to keep a close eye on your position. No problem this time and all that worrying back and forth made for an easy break out. I stowed line between each cycle which took no more time overall and resulted in much less to do once the boat was underway and pitching even more heavily for powering into the waves.
My nightly presence must have been noted because, on my last evening, I saw a sailboat of about the same size motoring into the cove. I figured it would be a show when I saw them swing into the wind directly upwind of me which doesn’t demonstrate a complete grasp of the finer points. Sure enough, the man let the anchor go with some frantic arm waving at the woman at the helm while the boat was still moving ahead enough to run about a boat length over the anchor.
They fell back to about 4:1 scope and put some turns on the cleat. More arm waving and some steering back and forth. Even with that minimal scope, they should have gotten a bit of a hold according to what I’ve felt every night. The man finally got the woman directed over the anchor which he pulled up and they disappeared around the point headed towards the yacht club and moorings, their bow festooned with a big ball of vegetation.
I didn’t actually realize what I was doing right until I saw this little fiasco. It’s one of those things that shows the value of good practice even when you aren’t fully foreseeing the results. I always try to be sure the boat is absolutely stopped when I start to let the anchor go. I let it down easily until I feel the bottom take the weight of the anchor and then stop until the boat starts to drift back. I then try to let out the chain at a speed that matches the drift so it lays out along the bottom. I then start letting out my line.
By insuring that my anchor is going straight down when lowered, I am creating a high probability that it will penetrate down between kelp and other large plants to reach clear bottom. Having it moving along the bottom as it’s lowered turns it into a harvester so that, by the time it reaches the bottom, it is a ball of weed, too cushioned by what it’s picked up, to bite into the bottom effectively. Think of parachuting into a stand of trees. You are much more likely to reach the ground if you go straight down than if the wind is carrying you along as you descend.
It’s still blowing pretty briskly tonight but the lighthouse on Georges Island is still exactly lined up with the corner of a building and the vertical line of lights in the corner rooms. You get great anchor range marks in cities. I’ll sleep well tonight.
Georges Island, by the way, was the prison for most of the Acadians prior to their deportation. Conditions were terrible and many died. Almost every Cajun in Louisiana probably has an ancestor who spent a horrible time on this little hump of land in Halifax Harbor than now tells me my anchor is firmly set.
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