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[dserrell]

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[kchunk]

Think you should upgrade? Looks like you're already oversized.

I'm not a guru of ground tackle. In fact, I don't even know the size of the anchor on our 23. It is a claw and it's a bit bigger than yours, but our chain is smaller at 1/4" X 30' and rope is 7/16" X 150' (if I recall). I believe the rule of dock lines also applies to ground tackle: Bigger is not better. NEWER is better!

I believe the nylon rode thickness is sized to the vessel accounting for the stretch of the line and the weight of the chain to snub any jerking motions preventing the anchor from being yanked out due to the normal motion of the ocean.

Speaking of motion of the ocean, this year we've spent probably 10 nights aboard Ohana, each night sleeping more soundly than the night before. In fact, a couple weeks ago we were back down in Barnes Sound, by Key Largo, (close to where we spent the night back in June). The weather wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. We were in our bunks by 10PM and about 10:30, the first little squall rolled through. The wind picked up, shifted directions and it rained for a short while. Just before it rained I turned on the chartplotter to mark our anchor location so I can double check we were not dragging our anchor. It held tight throughout the night despite a total of four little squalls rolling in off the ocean. Once I realized for sure we were not dragging, the motion of the ocean and the fresh breezes were quite comfortable. So much so that we slept till 8AM!

That morning I had one hell of a time getting the anchor up. It was dug in and good! When we got back to Daytona the next day I checked sailflow.com to see what wind speeds were recorded for that area and there were gusts up to 35 kts that night.

As for your trip to the Bahamas, you may want to read up on the Bahamian mooring. From what I gather it's used quite a bit there. This style of anchoring employs two anchors off the bow in opposite directions. So when the tides change, your boat is free to swing (effectively from one anchor to the other) but you don't require all the swinging room of a typical single anchor application. I think all you have to do is ask the other boats in the anchorage how they're anchored. If the other boats are using the bahamian mooring and you come putting in and drop a single hook with all the scope, once the tide changes, you might unknowingly become very close with some of your neighbors (we don't want to hear you got run out of the Bahamas too!    ). There are many sites with info about a Bahamian Mooring, here's one: http://www.tropicalboating.com/boat-handling/bahamian-anchoring.html. Search google for many others.

One last tip...(Sheesh, I didn't mean to be so long winded), I don't know if I read this here or somewhere else on the internet, but our Com-Pacs are very prone to sailing on the anchor. In other words, depending the your scope and the wind speed, while anchored, the boat will veer off and accelerate until the anchor rode yanks the bow around, through the wind, basically tacking. The boat once again accelerates on it's new tack until again, the rode snatches the bow and she turns through the wind again. This can go on all night and if you don't mind it, it can even be comfortable. However, every time the rode snatches the bow you risk the boat snatching the anchor instead. To alleviate this, once the anchor is set, take a 30' dock line and secure it to you anchor rode at the bow (a rolling hitch works fine). Let out another 10' or so of rode. Run the dock line back to the cockpit, running it a outboard of any stanchions and standing rigging, and secure it to a winch or cleat. Now, just slowly pull the dock line in until the boat is off the wind and cleat it down. This should keep the hull slightly off the wind and not allow it to swing side to side. Works great.

Keep us posted on you Bahamas trip!

--Greg

[brackish]

Are you comfortable sleeping "while on the hook"?   Not quite yet, but working on it.
And I always kind of sleep with one eye open when anchored depending on the protection.

Does your boat have the "correct" ground tackle?  Not yet in my opinion.

When I bought my 23 it had a single CQR 15 and appropriately sized chain and rode which is marginal for the job.  Great, high quality anchor but depending on which chart you read that size is good for 20 feet or 25 feet.  I intend to add a danforth style anchor which in my opinion is best for sand (lots of sand where I intend to go), with appropriate chain and rode , in the 1000 lbs. holding power range.  Maybe an HT, deepset or aluminum to keep the weight down, I've become obsessed with lightening the load and balance.  With those two anchor sets, I'll be good to go.

I don't think you should upgrade, my opinion you're OK.

With regard to the Bahama's maybe it depends on where you are going.  I think much of the sailing there is in protected waters and fairly shallow.  I spent a week in the Sea of Abaco, hit all the points of interest and never went outside except for one quick sail out to dump my holding tank.  Was told by the charter base operator common practice is to dump it in the middle of the Sea of Abaco, but I just couldn't do it, it's nothing but a big lake.  We went well out into the Atlantic and dumped it. No pump out stations then (1999), maybe different now.  Point is, at least there, same ground tackle as protected coastal cruising should be fine.

Abaco was a great trip, hope you enjoy your Bahamian trip.  Compac shallow draft should be advantageous there.

Frank

[Craig Weis]

I love to drop the Danforth off the bow roller in about 30 foot of depth and play out about 80 foot, of my 150 foot~3 ply nylon rode plus the vinyl coated chain. I sleep like a baby. Every two hours wake up and look~see if the boat is OK.

For a 'lunch anchor' pulled out from under the settee and tossed off the stern, a lady up the street gave me a vinyl dipped smaller Danforth that her deputy-sheriff X hubby left in the garage after he went chasing some other skirt. Sucks to be him. She's cute and has a big 'O hog Harley full dresser, and a side by side Ithaca shot gun. And she is nice, she don't drink nor smoke, she's stacked, usually high beams and blond, and looks great in a small micro two piece. But I won't hold that against her. We actually found out that she was one year ahead of me at GBS [Glenbrook South] high School [A class of about a thousand]. Now we both live within a few hundred feet, some 280 miles North of the O' H.S. and in a different state. Weird.
skip.

[bmiller]

We sleep very comfortably aboard Pooka.
The main anchor is a 22lb Lewmar claw (bruce type) with 30' of 5/16" chain and 150' 3/8" rode. Also have a couple danforths with the same chain/rode combo.
On occasion I've dropped the bruce and one danforth set about 45deg apart when expecting lots of wind. Of course a wind direction shift can really muck this up.
An issue to consider when dropping the hook is what are the neighbors using. One day while in the Tod Inlet,Vancouver Island, we were set in pretty good. A large charter boat came in and dropped what appeared to him to be a goodly distance away. He was on all chain, we were on our chain/rode set up. There was little to no wind but our boat was able to drift around on the 75' of rode we had out. That put us on top of one another. So close I just tapped on his hull. He moved.

Another anchoring story. We were in the Sea of Cortez anchored behind Punta Chivato. The wind was set at an angle to the incoming swell. That made for a rolly set. So I dropped a stern anchor off the starboard quarter and pulled the stern around to put the bow into the swell. The boat calmed right down and the evening was pleasant. Sometime in the middle of the night, I'm guessing 0300 the wind shifted and the rollers grew a bit. Now it was very uncomfortable and I was a bit hungover. So I had to tie a fender to the stern anchor rode and let her go. The boat swung around into the swell and she calmed right down. Come morning it was time to go and fetch the stern anchor from last night. I rowed the dink out and picked up the rode/chain and anchor. Came back to Pooka and loaded it all back in the boat, did I mention the hangover. After all the gear was loaded I saw the dink floating away, didn't tie it off properly. Crap, still have anchor to get before we can fetch the wayward dink. Hurriedly we started the diesel and brought up the anchor and swung around and picked up the dink. Thankfully there was nobody else up at that time to watch the circus.

I am a firm believer in as much chain as is practical, at least as long as the boat, more is better.

[Joseph]

Never... I find sailing very enjoyable and to a point, necessary... but I have never found it relaxing. Not as a skipper anyway.  Most solo cruisers of blue waters sleep during the day. I prefer solo coastal cruising in rivers and lakes and chose to anchor for the night, but I seldom sleep in stretches of more than a couple of hours. It seems that the temptation is overwhelming to always go on deck to see the stars and check what causes the wavelets rocking the boat... Or perhaps is the hope of catching in full sight the leprechauns that make those eerie humming noises inside the mast and boom...

J.

[kchunk]

Joseph, funny you mention the humming noises. I've heard our "rigging singing" many times while sailing. When the wind is brisk enough and hits the boat just right, a harmonic vibration sets up in the standing rigging. I've always like that sound. However, our last overnighter that I mentioned above, when we had a series of brief squall-like lines rolling through all night, there were several episodes where I was awoken by more of a vibration rather than a humming. It was a much lower frequency than the typical rigging singing and seemed to last 10 seconds or longer. More like an extended shutterring as the whole boat seemed to be vibrating.

I remember the first time it happened. I woke up, stared at the ceiling in the v-berth with my eyes wide open thinking, "What the hell is that!?!?"

After it stopped, I said to my wife, "Psst, you a wake?"

She said, "I am now."

"Did you feel that?" I said.

She said, "Yeah. What was it?"

"I don't know. You want to go up and take a look around?"

She said, "Yeah, right..."

I got up one more time, took a quick peek at the chartplotter and we hadn't budged so I just chalked it up to the Leprechauns in the mast.

In retrospect, I suppose it could have been the anchor rode pulled taught and plowing through the water when we would swing with the winds shifting with each squall. After all, there are no such things Leprechauns...right?

--Greg

[NateD]

I've spent two nights on the hook this year. The first was in a river with no wind overnight and I slept like a baby and woke up with the boat in the same position as it was when I went to sleep. The second night was on Lake Superior and the wind shifted 180 degrees overnight. I went to bed at 8:30pm and woke up at 1:00am to see I had swung 180 degrees which disturbed me greatly. I spent the rest of the night with the anchor alarm activated on the GPS. The anchor must have reset itself because I didn't drag at all the rest of the night, but it was incredibly unsettling to see that I had swung 180 degrees while at anchor. I don't know the exact size of my ground tackle, but it is about a 4# Danforth on a CP16 with 4' of chain and I had about 70' of rode in 10' of water. I plan on getting a second anchor of a different type to use as a backup, but the small Danforth did hold (despite the 180 degree shift). I do plan to keep the anchor alarm on the GPS from now on though, no mater what kind of ground tackle I'm using.

[Craig Weis]

When anchoring off Green Island in the Bay of Green Bay and on the windward side, which is an all rock bottom, I always drop the hook 'way out there' in at least 50 foot of water and motor back toward the beach and pull the anchor till it snags a big'O rock, slip the motor into 'N' and then play out enough rode for the wind to back me to within about one boat's length off the beach. Even then I'm in about 10 foot of water. Fold the ladder down and swim ashore and explore the LightHouse Keeps fallen down Milwaukee Cream Brick House and the grave of his little daughter who died on the island in 1800 something. I clean off the folage and brush away the sand of her head stone and wonder...

[Joseph]

Gregg,

Twice I recall experiencing the kind of shuddering that you describe while lying on the hook, and my interpretation was similar to yours: the tension in the rode. In both cases the rode was only chain with no snubber and also in both cases I was lying on the hook in a place with currents, but I imagine that a sudden squall could create a similar pull on the anchor. Was your rode also chain alone without a snubber? I predict that a snubber may prevent the shuddering, not that the chain would not vibrate on its own, but its vibration would not be transferred to the hull with the result that you describe. It also prevent transmitting the sound of the chain dragging on the bottom as the boat swings, something that would be appreciated by those sleeping in the fore-berth.

As for the Leprechauns, what can I say... I've seen them... as certain as ailing Joshua Slocum saw Colombus pilot steering The Spray... (and as Joshua even indicates, the leg steered by Pinzon was the one with the most accurate DR...). I thought these elves were cobblers in search of gold, but maybe they take on sailing once they retire...? Leprechauns and the like... of course there is no such things... but when sailing alone I certainly appreciate their company!

J

[HideAway]

We enjoy sleeping on the hook and wish we could do more.  When HideAway came into our lives she did not have an anchor so I used a danforth style anchor from our Sea Pearl.  It worked fine for the Sea Pearl but dragged a lot with HideAway and we just put up with it until the anchor rusted and I replaced it.   

Since my wife does the anchor chores I purchased another danforth style anchor one grade below the suggested rating for boat.  What a difference!   It sets the first time and only drags if we don't put out enough rode.  All our gunkholes  have sandy bottoms and are usually very shallow - less than 10 feet.  This tackle has 6 feet of 3/8 chain and 100' 1/2 inch three strand rode.  I carry two other smaller danforth style anchors with smaller chain and rode.   I would never use a plastic coated anchor or chain in salt water.  The coating will get punctured and salt water gets inside hiding the rust.

Once while anchored near the Gulfport FL pier waiting for the fireworks we saw a White Wall coming in off the Gulf.  When it hit with winds easily in the 40mph range we began plowing a row across the anchorage.  My wife went below leaving me in the tropical rain at the tiller sailing the boat around the others in the anchorage.   After the storm passed we set the proper rode length to watch the show.  I discovered that if you tie off the tiller and raise the rudder just a bit the boat won t sail around as much and I am much drier.   As the fire works began on the pier a whole rack of them fell over and went off - sending a broadside of rockets right at us and the other boats.  A boat near us lost his jib when he was hit and burned, we were lucky and only received another story to tell.  The city no longer uses the pier for fireworks.

[ka8uet]

I like sleeping at anchor.  I usually sleep in the cockpit because I like to watch the stars.  I have a 25# plow with 10' of chain and 150' of three strand nylon as my primary anchor for my 1988 23/3.  I have an oversize Fortress with 6' of chain and 300' of three strand as a storm anchor, and a smaller Danforth with 6' of chain and 200' of three strand as a lunch hook.  I've never dragged anchor, but I put out plenty of scope.  7/1 for overnight, 10/1 in case of bad weather.  I tie the bietter end off to the base of the mast.

[Craig Weis]

Tie the bitter end of the anchor line to the compression post if your Com-Pac Yacht has one.