We've been to Desolation Sound a number of times over the years in our 35,000 pound boat, which has 50' of chain and 150' of 5/8" nylon three strand rope. In all the years of anchoring, except twice, I normally drop in under 30' of water with 110' of rode (chain plus rope) in normal weather and 140' in snotty weather, unless really snotty, then more. Once I set the anchor, I clip on the rope a 20 pound lead ball down about ten feet with a lanyard in order to improve catenary. This has always been adequate.
Thanks for that info, @Terry Cox . I've been looking at upgrading my anchor gear lately. I'm running a similar setup to you, and I'm hoping to not introduce more chain into the mix. I think, generally, long chain anchor rodes are somewhat overrated. The catenary will turn into essentially a straight line in high loads and, at that point, the chain isn't doing anything for you that rope can't. Chain can help with initial anchor set, but chain is also expensive and heavy. Worse, it's heavy at the bow of the boat.
Anchoring and staying safely anchored involves several factors. Most are in the boaters control sometimes they are not.
In the conditions where the catenary is no longer much, or any, of a difference - there is the problem of chaffe with line. I've watched rope rode that in less extreme conditions work perfectly well, but under these extreme conditions the appearance of chaffe points not seen before become quite evident. At this loading, the rope rode chaffe degradation is really fast.
Yes, but no bother here and no riding sail either. If you want any information on specific anchorage locations, let's talk. Waggners has lots of good cruising information, be sure to have copy on board and plan your next stop accordingly. I look for places where other boaters tend to bypass. Check out my Desolation Sound cruise 2023 video on this forum for specific locations.
Nothing is permanent. Both work but both fade/degrade in time and need to be renewed.
If you have space, I'd use a thimble and splice over a thimble to the chain. The rope to chain splice I use on the bottom of my all chain side so the chain can't leave the boat and I have a rope tail at the end of my chain in case I want it to leave the boat in a hurry, I can just cut the line. But for a working joint like you'll have, I'd splice over a thimble and use a shackle to join them. That's how I did my secondary anchor which is a rode/chain system like you are building for your primary anchor.
I used those (properly sized) and found them to fall out constantly. I finally took the remaining few out and put in colored zip ties. I definitely don’t recommend them.
I constantly lost those Imra markers. I wonder why yours stayed put? I still have the remainder of the ones I pulled after they kept falling out. What size is your chain? Mine was 5/16 G4. Maybe they do better on some chain than others.
I wished I could help as to why mine stays put. I tried paint, the best of nail polish (much to the crew's ire) and tie wraps with mixed results before I came across the Imra markers at the chandlery. Honestly, I'm to the point where I have total confidence in them and just expect them to be there.
Possibly the design of the windlass gypsy has something to do with way the chain markers are handled. Unfortunately I have not watched that closely as the chain is recovered or deployed. My windlass is a Lewmar V3 vertical windlass.
