Vega - Anchors a-Weigh

Anchors a-Weigh

Vega

Hugh and Annie

Fri 4 Sep 2015 11:18

In this post my intention had been to wax lyrical about our new anchor float. The anchor tripping lines runs up from the anchor, through a shackle on the float and back to a big heavy shackle that can run up and down the tripping line below the float. As a result the length of the line is self adjusting to the depth of water and the float can remain vertically above the anchor. Unfortunately, there are a few technical hitches that I have yet to iron out. For example the line and float need to be lobbed overboard at the same time as the anchor is dropped. Works well on a millpond where the anchor bites first time but in less commodious conditions the line gets wrapped around the anchor chain - which is what happened when the anchor failed to bite here in Faro and in 20kts of breeze we had to get the anchor up again and of course I couldn’t with the tripping line and float all around it. A similar thing happened in Portamao where in our beach side position the boat gently swung around in circles on the anchor chain - neatly winding the tripping line around it and the anchor in the process. So the float is now safely stowed away in the locker until I can figure out a foolproof way of using it or someone out there can point me in the right direction!
In Portimao we had first anchored in about 7.5m of water which was fine given that the tide would fall by about 2.5m. However we were some way from the beach and close to a busy fairway so we repositioned ourselves nearer to the beach in about 5m of water which, given our draft of 1.8m, the very calm conditions and sandy bottom I thought would be OK, despite Annie’s misgivings. In a previous posting I mentioned the very bright and large full moon we have been experiencing over the last few days and this should have been a clue that there would be a big spring tide. However, our focus was now on the Sardines and as the depth fell to below 2.5m we trusted that it was by now low tide and we could safely carry on eating. Which we did until the depth fell to below 2m. it was now dark of course but we had to move and our direct route to the fairway was impeded by lots of other anchored yachts. We ran up their inside with an indicated 1.9m depth most of the way to the fairway. A close shave. Once re-anchored we had a "significant event” meeting and the big lesson for us is the same one we have learnt for berthing; it is really important for the two of us to discuss and agree plans ahead of berthing, anchoring or whatever. Annie’s attention to detail combined with my boat handling experience makes for a much better outcome if we are both comfortable with what we are doing.
Another anchoring issue is that my fab new anchor alarm app will only work when picking up GPS but won’t always do this without first having a wifi (wiffy over here) connection. We have exactly the same issue with the charts downloaded on to the Ipad - you can’t activate a route plan without GPS which also needs to be triggered by a wifi connection. Have I missed something here?
Prompted by an email from Chris and Julia in Greece we have discovered that our chart plotter does indeed have an anchor alarm (and much else besides we have found)! This doesn’t need wifi and provides a fascinating record of the boat’s movements during the night if the tracking mode is kept on. It also bleeps from time to time for various reasons and this has had each of us up in the cockpit in the night fearing we are dragging the anchor. As with the app you need to remember to activate it as the anchor is dropped and not when safely tethered on the end of up to 40m of chain!
Finally I do have one anchoring success to report. I mentioned above that we anchored here, near to Faro, in 20kts of wind. With the wind in the west in the afternoons and evenings there is enough fetch across the bay for quite a chop to develop. Our anchor chain comes direct from the windlass in the bow and there is no give when the boat is jerking or yawing. My original intention before we left was to rig up an anchor buddy i.e. a weight that is attached to but can run up and down the anchor chain from a separate line to the boat. The weight is let down the chain to the sea bed and when the bow rises and tightens the anchor chain it has to raise the buddy before jerking the anchor and this dampens the motion. The alternative is a snubbing line that is in effect a mooring line that is attached to the anchor chain below the bow and run back from a fairlead on the bow to a cleat on deck midships (in our case) or the stern. It is tensioned by letting out the anchor chain until the strain is taken up by the snubbing line and there is a short length of loose anchor chain between the snubbing line attachment and the windlass. Having never got around to sorting the buddy I thought a snubbing line would be just the ticket and so with an appropriate slightly stretchy mooring line, additional stretch from a thick rubber shock absorber around which the line is wound and a quick release shackle for attaching to the chain we were in business. Well, not quite because I hadn’t realised how small the holes in the chain links are and the shackle wouldn’t fit through. There is of course a proprietary fitting for attaching a line to chain the name of which I forget and as we don’t have one it is academic anyway. Fortunately we do have plenty of fairly thin but immensely strong line and a doubled up loop of this did fit through the hole in the link to which the quick release shackle could be attached. So far it has worked a treat………..
And I have just remembered that a Swedish boat at our very first anchorage at Finisterre had a small sail attached to the backstay to act as a rudder (like an aircraft tail fin) to prevent the boat from swinging from side to side. Their boat remained pointing directly into the wind while all the other boats were swinging around like dervishes. Now there’s something worth trying!