Alerting another boat their anchor is dragging

[NateD]

Saturday night I was at anchor on Lake Pepin (the current home for my CP23) with a half-dozen other sailboats spread out behind a peninsula that was blocking the NW wind which was blowing mostly west at 10-15mph during the day but died back to about 5 at sundown and shifted a little more north. The most exposed boat to wind from the north was a Beneteau First 235, then me, then all of the larger boats. We were anchored in about 12' of water with a mud/sand bottom. I was using my 22 pound claw anchor with 15' of chain and 50' of rode out. Around 2am the wind started kicking up a bit and was coming more from the north. Around 4:15am it really started to blow with 15mph constant with gusts above of 20mph. After about 10 minutes I peaked out a porthole and it looked like the Beneteau was much closer. I opened the hatch and I was about the same distance from the other boat to the south of me, but the Beneteau was noticeably dragging. It looked like if they continued to drag they wouldn't hit anyone else in the anchorage, but the lee shore about 0.5-1 mile away (depending on their drift) was all rocks. Earlier in the day I had seen at least two small kids jumping off the boat and swimming, but I didn't notice how many adults were on board.

They had dragged/drifted at least 200 yards, and the pace of the drift seemed to be increasing. There was no sign anyone was awake. After watching this for 5 minutes I grabbed my air horn, gave two medium length blasts then tried to make contact by VHF on 16 by calling "Beneteau first 235" (I didn't catch the boat name during the day), and notifying them that they were dragging anchor. The other boat next to me responded, thinking that I was dragging down on them, but I explained the situation and he said he could see them drifting too. The Beneteau didn't respond and there was still no sign that anyone was awake on the boat. So I blasted the air horn a few more times (I forget the count/pattern), waited a few minutes while they continued to drift/drag, blasted a few more times, waited, and blasted again. The cabin light never came on and they were getting far enough away that I was have a hard time seeing them in the darkness. I decided I was going to have to pull anchor and motor over to them and knock on the hatch to wake them up before they hit the rocks. So I got my clothes on, and I was about to move my 5 week old daughter from the v-berth to her car seat for safety while motoring, but she had just gone back to sleep and I really didn't want to wake her back up if I didn't have to. I peeked out the hatch again and I could just barely make out a figure moving on the bow of the Beneteau. After awhile it was clear that they were motoring back toward the anchorage and there were two adults in the cockpit. I watched them anchor again and made sure they didn't start drifting again. By then it was about 5:15 and I had too much adrenaline pumping to go back to bed, so I had some cereal and eventually caught a little sleep before the baby woke up again.

I was left with three questions. First, was the horn/VHF method appropriate? Should I have used 5 short blasts on the horn? Should I have done a securite or pan-pan call? Since neither horn or VHF seemed to wake them (or maybe the horn did eventually), the actual number of blasts or radio etiquette doesn't seem to matter much, but theoretically, what would be the right way to do it? Second, what other methods could have been used to try and wake them? I didn't have a high powered spot light, otherwise I would have hit them with that too. There was a barge about 2 miles away in the channel heading north. I could have asked him to shine a spot light (they are incredibly powerful) toward us or to sound his horn a few times but I didn't know if that was legal/appropriate since he was underway. I guess I could have used to VHF to see if any of the other anchored boats had a spotlight. Lastly, what are your obligations as a sailor to try and help a boat that has not requested assistance and is not in imminent danger? They probably could have drifted for another 30 minutes before hitting the rocks, and they're anchor might have eventually caught and kept them off the rocks, though with the direction of drift they were losing the lee cover of the peninsula and the waves/drift speed were getting faster. From a humanitarian perspective I felt I needed to do whatever I could, but I was alone with my 5 week old infant, and I had promised my wife I would be very careful and conservative which came to mind when I was considering pulling anchor and chasing down a drifting boat in the dark.

[Billy]

I'm guessing you did the right thing.
After all how do you know that your horn wasn't what woke them?

Good questions. Will be looking forward to hearing the correct protocol from others.

[capt_nemo]

Kinda reminds me of my blowing an air horn repeatedly to get the attention of folks I could see inside a pilothouse sailboat which had somehow chafed through its mooring line in the middle of Annapolis Harbor Mooring Field! Fortunately their attention was gained, they looked out, saw that they were drifting, and quickly came topside to power up and remedy the situation. No damage done!

Nate, under the circumstances you absolutely did the right thing using the air horn to get their attention. And, like Billy said, that may have been what got them alerted.

Based on what is published, and used in general practice, for Marine Sound Signals, 4 or more blasts in succession is the DANGER signal. So a series of 4 or more, followed by a pause, and then repeated, would be the proper alert signal.

Most cruisers turn the radio off at night so a hail on the VHF would have fallen on deaf ears. Unless, they immediately turn it on when awakened by the air horn. Then the PAN-PAN (pronounced PON-PON) prefix would alert them to an urgent message concerning safety of a person or vessel.

capt_nemo

[skip1930]

I never sleep well when anchored...always checking the land marks to see if they moved.
As far as alerting anybody? Do what you can and forget about it. As long as the offending boat doesn't drift back down on you.

skip.

[Shawn]

Skip,

"I never sleep well when anchored...always checking the land marks to see if they moved."

Have you tried using the anchor alarm in your chartplotter?  Set it where you drop anchor and then set the range to be a little bit bigger than however much rode you put out. If you boat passes beyond that an alarm will go off to alert you that you are dragging.

Shawn

[Shawn]

Nate,

Sounds like you did the right thing alerting them while at the same time keeping your daughter safe. I bet next time they sleep on the hook (if ever) they will have an anchor alarm set. For anyone with an iPhone/iPad there are numerous anchor alarm apps available. Some are free such as DragQueen.

When I sleep on the hook I have an anchor alarm set in my chartplotter and another in my iPhone.

Shawn

Shawn

[NateD]

I have two problems with anchor alarms. First, the lake I sail on often goes dead calm overnight. Two weeks ago it was blowing pretty good when that other boat broke loose, but this past Saturday my wife, daughter, and I stayed on the boat and it was dead calm. When it gets real calm the boat floats around in all directions, which will set off the anchor alarm. The second issue is the size of the "zone". If you have 100-150' of rode out, you can swing around quite a bit and trigger the alarm often. By the time I widen out swing area enough to account for normal swing it doesn't leave much buffer between the alarm sounding and the boat hitting shore.

I used to use an anchor alarm, but gave up because of the false alarms. I've been fortunate that in the places that I have anchored in the past two years I haven't had a problem setting the anchor. If I know the anchor is set well, and an appropriate amount of scope is let out, then I sleep (relatively) well and without an anchor alarm. The biggest concerns then are a wind shift or someone dragging down on me. Drinking plenty of fluids before bedtime ensures that I'm up once or twice to keep an eye on things at night. Also, having an infant on board tends to get you up a few times as well, but that is a relatively new tactic for me, and I'm told that they do eventually sleep through the night....

[Shawn]

" When it gets real calm the boat floats around in all directions, which will set off the anchor alarm."

For a chartplotter anchor alarm I found they are a little harder to set well singlehanded. Typically when single handing I had to set mine after I had completely anchored. This meant the alarm was not centered correctly over the anchor which meant the alarm circle had to be bigger to cover all anchored drift. If the conditions were calm enough I could wait for the boat to stop, set the alarm and then go forward to drop anchor.

An iPhone app can be a bit easier about this as I bring mine forward and set the alarm position when I start to drop the anchor. That way it is centered around the drift and I don't need to add much length beyond the scope itself.

Like you said though the best safeguard is being anchored well in the first place. I'm anchoring on the ocean so I have tidal shifts along with wind shifts. Having a lot of my rode being chain along with the tides keep me from drifting much when there is no wind.

" Also, having an infant on board tends to get you up a few times as well, but that is a relatively new tactic for me, and I'm told that they do eventually sleep through the night...."

Took my son 18 months to figure that trick out....  then when they get a bit older they figure out they can walk down to your bed and join you.

Don't believe the hype... teaching them to walk and talk just leads to trouble.

Shawn

[HideAway]

We were awakened around 2 am one night by the sound of a bow sprit twanging our rigging - we were sleeping in the cock pit - I jumped up and pushed it off and grabbed my air horn as the 50 footer - a power boat drifted through the crowded anchorage towards shore.  I did six short blasts then paused and did six more until I woke them up- thier boat was three stories tall - huge - they fired thier engines and came along side to ask how I knew they were dragging -- I showed them the pieces and they just motored off.  All the other boats were awakened and there was a lot of shouting  and air horns going off in protest to mine -- it was a holiday - and my actions started the party up again - never did get any sleep and we have not slept in the v berth since.  We had no real damage but that was the very first time out with my new standing rigging - I was not a happy camper   Matt

[Billy]

Matt,
If u were sleeping in the cockpit, why dont you sleep in the v birth anymore?

I'm confused.

[ontarioSuncat]

Just got back from a three week trip to the North Channel in Lake Huron. Spent 4 days in a marina and the rest on the hook. I have a SUn Cat with a 11# bruce with 30 feet of 1/4"chain and 100 feet of 1/2", never had a problem with hold. I set the anchor with max operational power (about 3/4 throttle)  on the 5HP. If it held then I can sleep good.
One large 40 footish size sailboat came into the acnorage we were at and several of us watched him set his anchor. We wanted to be sure of all the swing angles ect. He dropped 20 feet of chain in 10 feet of water. He was questioned about the need for more scope and he replied that he had 20 feet of chain out and that was more than enough to hold. Well the wind picked up over night as forcasted and he was blown out of the anchorage over the night with everyone surprised that he missed so many rocks at the entrance.  We figured that once warned what else can you do?

[capt_nemo]

Any chance the skipper was French Canadian?

Ran across a few like him during our long distance cruising adventures a few years back. And, most of the encounters were in CROWDED ANCHORAGES!

[skip1930]

Best alarm is my alertness. No I never set the anchor alarm on the chart plotter.

skip.