Lost Anchor

[adifferentdrummer]

As I was waking this morning I detected within me a distinct sense of loss. Upon deeper introspection, it became clear to me that my heart was pining over my lost anchor. I had gotten it snagged while anchoring for lunch the day before. I struggled for an hour or more trying to dislodge it but finally had to give up and leave it behind.

It was a marvelous day to be out sailing; sunny and warm, and almost a little too much wind. I reefed the mainsail at the dock and then tied the sails down securely before motoring out well away from shore to get some sea room before making sail. When I began raising the main, much to my chagrin, I discovered that it had twisted as I was putting in the reef and would have to be pulled completely off the boom and put back on again. This was not going to be easy in these spirited breezes, so I motored out further to ensure I had plenty of room.

I did my single-handed best to keep the bow into the breeze while I stripped the sail from the boom. I got it off and stuffed it into the cabin away from the wind, and sorted it all out to be sure it didn't get twisted again. After directing the bow back into the wind, with the tiller lock on, I pulled up the clew and began feeding the bolt rope in the foot of the sail back into the slot. Once it was in, the tack was pinned and the outhaul was pulled taught and cleated, I still had to get that reef in before I could set it.

I have boom-roller-reefing, which is a real pain in situations like this. Ideally, I would raise the sail fully, slacken the halyard, then begin turning the boom to wrap the sail around it. In these heavy breezes I didn't dare raise that main all the way up, so, checking my attitude towards the wind again and pointing up, I let the body of the sail lay in the bottom of the boat, partly in the cockpit and partly in the cabin, and accomplished my reefing upside down. Once I had what appeared to be an ample reef for the conditions, I clipped the halyard to the head and began feeding the luff into the mast track. She slid up nicely, filled with wind, the boat turned off and galloped away like a playful pony across the waves. I feathered the little outboard and sailed on reefed main alone for a while until I began to get a feel for it. If I'd had a smaller head sail I would have run it up, but having only a genny I figured, what the heck, I came out here to sail, so I ran it up.

She was kicking up a spray and burying her rail, and after a few thrilling tacks I was ready for something a little less white-knuckled. I decided to let her run instead of trying to beat into it and she sat up straight and spread her wings and made a straight course to the east and to the big island at the center of the lake. Looking for a refuge from the wind and a place to have some lunch, I passed up the first, smaller cove and headed into the next, larger one that would take me deeper into the interior of the island where the trees could block some of the wind. Even though I was a couple of hundred yards into the cove now, the wind was still strong and I still had hull speed. I came about and headed up letting the sails luff so I could bring down the genny. By the time the genny was stowed she had come back around and was heading downwind and deeper into the cove. I got as close to the rocky shore as I dared, then loosed the anchor and started paying out rode. It was a good fifty feet before I felt it hit the bottom. I let out another twenty feet or so and wrapped a turn around the bow cleat. She spun around gracefully, straining against her tether, and rested in place with mainsail gently flogging. I pulled down the main and lashed it to the boom.

After a leisurely lunch I sorted out my gear and made ready to get under way. I started pulling in my rode, but after the initial twenty feet or so, I could pull no more. I was directly over my anchor now, staring at the rode disappearing in a straight line from the bow down into the darkness of the depths below. With each tug on the rode I could feel the anchor lift off the bottom about two feet and then it would grab and hold fast. I would let go the rode and about two feet would slide through my fingers until I could feel the anchor hit bottom again.

To make a long story short, I paid out all hundred feet of rode (plus six feet of chain) and pulled from every point of the compass trying to dislodge it. I brought it around and cleated it to the stern, fired up the outboard and pulled with all the horse power the little engine could muster until I feared I would rip the cleat right off the boat. That anchor just wouldn't budge. I even foolishly tried to dive on it, but the water was frigid and after about twenty feet it became too dark to see. The sun was getting low in the sky and I had work the following day, so I had to admit defeat and leave my fine anchor to the keeping of the deep.

I had nothing with me to tie on as a float and rather than ruin a good rode by cutting off what I could salvage, I just pulled it all out and took it to shore and tied it to a stake in the ground. If it's still there when I go out next week I may try a couple of other ideas for possible retrieval methods. In the mean time, I'm shopping for a new anchor and rode.

So now, I put it to the group, how would you go about getting that snagged anchor free? It is a Hooker #8 (9 pounds) with six feet of quarter inch ss chain and two stainless shackles. I figure it's down at least 50 feet, but could be a bit deeper. I suspect it's probably hung on a tree that ended up sunk to the bottom of the channel leading into this cove. It was a great set up for the boat and represents an investment of at least a hundred bucks. I'd like to get it back, so I'd love to hear some suggestions from our collective consciousness here on the group. I plan on going back to the spot in a few days to make a final attempt at retrieval.

Milt
CP16 #635

[curtisv]

I had nothing with me to tie on as a float and rather than ruin a good rode by cutting off what I could salvage, I just pulled it all out and took it to shore and tied it to a stake in the ground. If it's still there when I go out next week I may try a couple of other ideas for possible retrieval methods. In the mean time, I'm shopping for a new anchor and rode.

So now, I put it to the group, how would you go about getting that snagged anchor free? It is a Hooker #8 (9 pounds) with six feet of quarter inch ss chain and two stainless shackles. I figure it's down at least 50 feet, but could be a bit deeper. I suspect it's probably hung on a tree that ended up sunk to the bottom of the channel leading into this cove. It was a great set up for the boat and represents an investment of at least a hundred bucks. I'd like to get it back, so I'd love to hear some suggestions from our collective consciousness here on the group. I plan on going back to the spot in a few days to make a final attempt at retrieval.

Milt
CP16 #635

Make friends with someone that is into scuba an has their own tank and stuff, and then tell them the story?

You'd have to be real good to snorkel down to 50 feet and then free and anchor.

Curtis

[Bob23]

Milt:
   This is not a bad problem to have..my anchor still sits on the back fence, waiting to take it's place on the bow pulpit!
   Your anchor may spend the rest of it's days with all the other anchors down there. Unfortunately, that is part of sailing. We have all sand bottoms here so trees and rocks are not an issue but I've had times where my anchor has dug in so far that I wondered if he was ever coming back.
    I just started sorting out my misc lines department for a trip line I'll install on the anchor this year. It's just a line on a float that attaches to the anchor body somewhere; makes it a bit easier to dislodge a stubborn anchor.
    Glad you're sailin'! I launch in about 2 weeks!
Bob23

[JBC]

Milt,

If it makes you feel any better, know that other things lost to the deep can simply keep you up at night, never mind that "sinking" feeling in the morning.  I once lost a new 2.5hp Tohatsu outboard off my canoe to the drink.  I had just acquired a neat canoe motor mount for my Old Town, and was tooting around a high (and deep) mountain lake in CO with my wife when, all of a sudden, I heard a gurgle-like noise at the stern, looked back and watched as the motor and the motor mount effortlessly slipped beneath the surface.  Hadn't occured to me to tie the rig to the canoe.

My wife says to this day she never knew I could be speechless for so long.  But maybe you can do what I'm doing...just waiting until the lake dries up someday and hiking out to see if I can find the thing.

[Craig Weis]

Could have tied a fender to the line before giving up, then work the anchor from other angles in an effort to retrieve it.
Just in case my anchor pin falls out, I tie the line to the compression post, keeping the extra in the rope locker.

skip

[curtisv]

My wife says to this day she never knew I could be speechless for so long.  But maybe you can do what I'm doing...just waiting until the lake dries up someday and hiking out to see if I can find the thing.

Milt,

It might need a little work at that point.  A dive shop owner near Candlewood Lake (CT) has a hobby of sort of reading the local paper to see if any ATVs fell through the ice in the spring.  He then recovers them and offers a salvage charge.  If the owner (usually the parents of the kid that dunked it) doesn't take the salvage deal, it gets sold to a shop that tears it down, rebuilds it, and sells it as used.

btw - I feel lucky that I've never dropped anything more valuable than a hand tool or a clevis pin.  I know to keep extra clevis pins and cotter pins handy and try real hard not to drop them.  They do have a habit of rolling.  I tie a line to handtools that I use for tunng the rigging - the usual cause of lost small items.  My son did lose a pair of flippers, mainly because he thought they would float - little kids sometimes make that kind of mistake.  Can't think of much else.  I hope that doesn't mean I'm due to drop something.  I did lose a watch to the washing machine after putting it in my pocket to make sure it didn't get wet on the boat.  Ooops.

Curtis

[rwdsr]

Milt,
Hate hearing that you lost an anchor, but loved hearing that you got out for a sail.  I haven't tried anchoring yet, and am just a little intimidated just thinking about it.  But, am getting ready to go spend a week on the water, so I suppose I'll get a little practice.  I've got two anchors - a nice fortress and a cheap wally mart ...........aw nuts there I go - brain dead again........Danforth!  I hate it when I do that.  Anyway i think I'll risk the danforth for the first couple of times until I get it down.  I've lost several mushroom anchors fishing in the river.  You just never know.
If I were there and the weather was a little warmer I'd go get it for you, I'm certified.
BobD

[Joseph]

Milt,

>>> With each tug on the rode I could feel the anchor lift off the bottom about two feet and then it would grab and hold fast. I would let go the rode and about two feet would slide through my fingers until I could feel the anchor hit bottom again.

This makes me believe it is not a large log holding your anchor down because chances are that after so much pulling the anchor would have been held down solid by the log. I had that same feeling once, and the anchor was being held by a power cable (!!) (but in your case it could be a chain, a wire or a smaller branch or something flexible of the like). When I dove to take a look I saw the CQR being held down by a long white thick cable abt 3 inches diameter that was sitting on top (!!!) of the crown of the anchor. Pulling from the rode would lift the cable in a tent fashion. By letting the anchor drop to the bottom in free fall it eventually fell faster than the cable and got dislodged. We figured that another boat that had anchored nearby must have hooked the cable solid and pulled it on top of our anchor and rode...

To dislodge a fouled anchor that has no tripping line nothing beats a professional diver, but you might wish to try dislodging it using a piece of chain as an anchor chaser and pooled from the rode holding the chaser from ahead of the anchor. I've used this twice to successfully dislodge a Bruce from logs in the bottom.

If not successful you should smile... the anchor would be your gift to the gods of the deep and you should be happy that they get contented with so little...

J.

[adifferentdrummer]

Well, I do appreciate the condolences and the advice. It seems I may have to do as JBC suggested and just wait until the lake dries up and hike out there and get it, unless I can do as Curtis suggested and talk my buddy BobD into dragging his scuba gear along when he comes over to sail my lake. Skips suggestion was good too, but I already tried pulling under full throttle from every point on the compass. I had just bought a new fender to replace the one I lost last summer, but I didn't think to use a fender as a float. I'll remember that the next time.

Now I've just read Joseph's reply and it sounds like a promising tactic, but I'm not sure I fully understand how to employ it. One thing is for sure, I am happy that it's just my ground tackle and not something more precious resting at the bottom of the lake.

If my little stick in the ground held, I have two more ideas to try next time out. One is to lower a powerful magnet that I have to try and catch the anchor by it's fluke. I'm hoping the magnet (with a reasonable degree of luck and some serious snake-eyed concentration) may pull the fluke up and lock it to the shank allowing it all to come up through the obstruction without acting like a grapple. Of course, I may just loose my magnet as well, but it didn't cost me anything. The last resort would be to run a rope to a tree and use a come-a-long to try and pull everything up. Most likely, my rode has slipped into the drink and disappeared along with the anchor. Ah well, as Bob23 said, that's just part of sailing!

Milt
CP16 #635

[Joseph]

Milt,

The idea behind using a chaser is to get to pull the anchor from its crown in a direction opposite from that which caused it to faul. Get a short piece of chain (abt 2-3 ft of 1/2" or the like) and close it into a circle using a shackle (or use the same rope that you are about to tie to it). This rope (which I will call "rode B") is better if it is not Nylon (it should not stretch) and should be longer than the unit scope of the rode of the fauled anchor (which I will call "Rode A"). From the water find rode A in the anchorage and place the circular piece of chain around it. Tighten rode A until it pulls vertically from above the anchor and let the chain attached to rode B slide down along it towards the anchor by jiggling and paying as much rode B as required. By reason of its own weight, the piece of chain will eventually reach the anchor and hopefully glide along its shank towards the crown. Keeping rode A tight is crucial, particularly if rode A has a heavy chain portion, because the circular piece of chain should also glide past it to reach the anchor shank. Then try pulling from rode B in a direction opposite to the pull that rode A would have had on the anchor when it fauled. Try first by hand but use the boat motor if needed. With some luck this will dislodge the hook from its fauling nemesis... Stay away from rode B as you pull with the boat in case it breaks. It is as simple as that, but it requires a bit of preparation, some patience and lots of luck. Feel free to contact me to my personal e-mail if you need further clarifications or details, and let us know how it goes!

J.

[Craig Weis]

How far down is this anchor?
And what is it sitting in?
How badly do you want it?
In my town under water cameras can be rented.
Or ask the 'fire depatment' to do a training dive.

skip.