Anchoring out

While it is nice to go into a harbor just to check it out, unless I need a really good shower, or provisions, I'd rather trust to my own hook and pick my spot. Practicing anchoring often is a good skill for situations were you need extra skill.

For example, there some places that are very fun to go but have limited anchoring options. You are stuck anchoring in the outer harbor, a long distance away, exposed, or else on an expensive mooring or more expensive dock or perhaps there is no space for you anywhere.

I like anchoring out. In fact, if I can avoid going into a harbor I will. I like the secluded spots all to myself. I’m “in nature” and there is nothing to disturb it. Life is all around me and there is always something new. It also saves a lot of money, and frankly I think docking and mooring are places to be avoided, less beautiful. Unless you are provisioning or hiding out from a bad storm, I’d much rather take a hot shower aboard, if there is plenty of water and heat, than go ashore. I like the independence of being on my own, with everything I need and no traffic jams, and crowds of people all around me. I feel privileged to be out observing nature. I'm happy on the boat. I'm not in a hurry to get off or go somewhere.

My typical preference is a single hook with all chain, and a often a sentinel when I use a mostly rope rode. If I have chain it is unlikely I have a second all chain rode. So that means the second anchor is a short length of chain and a rode. I use a snubber in exposed situation but not in a protected spot. I anchor often with 3:1 scope, or sometimes 3.5:1, scope which is recommended for all chain. And for a short stay like lunch, or even overnight, I go as low as 2:1 if conditions are light. All chain is great in an outer harbor, if the weather is nice. And 3:1 scope means you can anchor in 60'of water with the big boats, with 200' of chain. Fast and easy, but sometimes the places you visit will have every possible anchorage spot filled with a mooring leaving nothing for those who anchor.

The other extreme, which I’ve used a few times is heading up river where it's shallow, as far as you can go. Lots of times I've gone up rivers as far as I could go. Then what? Paying close attention to the tide tables, I find a spot in the channel. They say no anchoring in the channel, and in my opinion the channel ends where I anchor. If that is as far as I can go, nothing bigger is going past me, right? They would risk of running aground. If nothing bigger than me is going upriver from there—the channel ends there, in my opinion even if there are buoys farther up, they are for much smaller craft.

Smaller craft can easily get around me if needed. One of the joys in motoring around is seeing all the sights. I consider myself one of the sites to see. I welcome the site of any nice looking boat anywhere I go--so do other people.

I really don’t get in anyone’s way. No one has complained, although I would not push my luck and camp out in front of someone house for weeks and weeks. I’m more typically moving on to the next spot, never in one place long enough to piss anyone off...

So because such a strategy means it is shallow in every direction but downstream, you need to stabilize your boats position in one fixed position. So that means multiple anchors in a Bahamian mooring-- two anchors set towards either flow of current. This keeps you in one spot. A sentinel or kellet is a weight used to hold the rode down below the keel. I use a length of rope and a spare anchor with a retrieval line attached. Easy to fabricate and no extra equipment and weight needed on the boat. This enables you to anchor in a tight spot with short scope, which keeps your position perfectly.

One particular spot I’m thinking of is Mystic Seaport. A great place to visit and their docks are not always available. I anchored in the channel. On the way out, past the last bridge, hoisted sail, sailed down the river, gybed at the bottom and caught the ebb out by Watch Hill and the northerly wind and favorable current spit us along the coast towards Newport in 5-6 hours, with only a little beating to weather the leg north at the end into Newport. The tide was high, no worries, I could have cut across the mooring field, but decided to honor the red and greens as running aground there at high tide a grounding would have been embarrassing. It was enough fun for me to sail down the channel. It was a weekday with almost no traffic.

So that my friends is the secret to finding a super protected anchorage spot in a river for an over-night stay. The proper solution to the problem is a Bahamian mooring, some rope and a spare anchor to fashion a sentinel and anchor right there in the channel as far up as you can reasonably go.