...without winding up on top of someone else. Have you ever noticed someone glaring at you from a nearby boat in an anchorage? Did you also notice the color of their eyes? Could you easily read the "born-on" date of the beer in their hands? If your answer is yes, read on. This always happens to me on busy weekends. I'm in a nice anchorage, I'm sure the hook is well set, and I am happy with my distance from the other boats around me. Life is good. Then I go ashore and return to find someone is so close to me that they might as well have rafted up. Now I have to decide whether to say something, move myself, or put out fenders. My carefree weekend has just turned into another day at the office. I am sure these people are not jerks. Boaters are nice people, especially sailors. They just don't know how to position themselves in a crowded anchorage. It's not easy. Sometimes the wind is so light you can't tell for sure how you'll fall off. Sometimes (usually) there are tidal currents that complicate the equation. I'm no expert, but here is a basic principle you can put in the bank: in a crowded anchorage, you must drop your anchor NEAR THE STERN OF ANOTHER BOAT. If you don't do this, you have no chance of falling off well spaced. If you drop your anchor far away from other boats, can you guess where you're going to end up after you pay out your rode? That's right, you'll be closer to other boats than you (and they) prefer. I know it's hard to do, pull right up next to the stern of another boat and drop your anchor. They're in the cockpit, giving you the defensive anchoring glare. Ignore them. Pick out the boat that is most directly upwind of the open area where you'd like to end up. Snuggle right up, just behind them, or slightly overlapping. I don't mean within inches, stop your boat about 10-15 feet away. Kick over the anchor. Then, as you fall off, every second that passes will take you further away from that boat, and into open territory. Everyone relaxes. You can then set the hook and have that well-deserved cold drink in the cockpit. If you arrive before the anchorage has crowded up, you can use a variation of this technique: pick out two boats, and stop so that your nose is right on the imaginary line connecting the stern of those boats. Drop, and fall off. You will have created a (nearly) equilateral triangle, which is perfect. There are lots of variables. You'll have short chain rodes and long rope ones, and random ones from power boaters. You'll swing around if a front passes. This isn't supposed to answer all the questions. But its a start. Paul sv Escape Artist h336