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« on: January 18, 2010, 02:44:41 PM »
Steve,
Great story on anchoring and what the proper tackle can do to hold the boat.
We were in the Gulf Islands last year in one of your Canadian protected coves with a stern tie. Protected...well on 3 sides.....LOL. We pulled into the anchorage at about 1:00 pm set the anchor in about 25 ft of water with a 5 to 1 scope, and put out a stern tie. We are now broadside to the open end of the cove, we had friends raft up beside us on the port side with their 36' Jeanneau as we have done many times(first mistake they did not put their anchor down). It is absolutely calm with no wind in the forcast so we went exploring on the island, came back and had a nice dinner on the boat. Friends went to bed at 10:00 and we went to bed at 11:00 again no wind and none in the forcast. At about 12:00pm I wake up and my buddy is out on his boat, I look out through the rear birth hatch and I see tree limbs......HHHMMMM those weren't there when I went to bed, and it sounds like the wind is blowing. I am sure you have personal stories about those Canadian northerlies that come up out of no where, we heard about them over the next 2 weeks as we related this story to other cruisers. The next 2 hours was a Chinese fire drill in the dark, first we had to get my friends boat off of mine so that I could reset the anchor...Oh did I mention there is another boat on our starboard side about 50' away (thank goodness for the stern tie), and we are trying to do this with a dingy and 25-30 knots of wind. We worked for 2 hours getting him off, anchored into the wind and my anchor reset, no sleep all night.
With the above story in mind I sleep very well with my 33 lb. Bruce and 60' of chain. This is the only time we have pulled loose in 4 years with the boat anchoring out 20-30 nights a year. I now have a pretty good idea what it takes to drag. I have spoken to one of our dock neighbors that has been to Mexico, we are discussing a possible future trip, he says get another 40' of chain minimum if we head there as he has been through a couple Chubasco's.
Thanks for web updates, The wife and I throughly enjoy them and your humor through it all.