How to choose a good anchorage.

My friend, Claire's mom and dad are here for a vacation, from Paris. We have been together several times, and last night Paul and Peggy had us all up to their apartment in the hills for another fantastic dinner. They are incredible cooks, and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy every thing that they serve. Well, I have to make an exception. Black Sausage, or French is Boudin Noir. In Britain, is called Blood Pudding. The cooked blood of pig or cow, cooked long enough that it will congeal when it cools, inside a sausage skin. Not my favorite, but I seem to recall hearing about it in my family when I was a child. They had asked that I bring my keyboard along, and I played after eating for about an hour. We had a good time, and I returned to AF after 1am.

Had another nice long email today from old neighbor and lifelong friend, Rosemary, whose family were our next door neighbors when Mom and Dad moved to Rosslyn Farms. She had just caught up on the blog, and agreed that I was whining too much. You might remember that she wrote me several months ago, complaining about this blog's title. This time she agreed that I WAS doing a bit too much whining!

My reply went into the latest news, including that I had moved AF yesterday, but missed the bridge opening at 530pm so could not enter the lagoon, and had to find a new place to anchor. I have admired a spot now for many months, as being away from the crowds and traffic (after 3 months of being bounced by the water taxis, muscle boats, and tourists on wave runners), and that is where I anchored, with Bernard's help, in calm, flat, placid waters with light winds from the east. Last night, the calm was replaced with the same winds that we have had for the last 2 weeks and from the north. It was only one day's reprieve. So, once again, AF is tossed and bounced about, with 3 foot waves, some breaking, passing under her, as she rides up and down. Not so much rolling but pitching, on the fore to aft axis.

Responding to Rosemary's email had me thinking about anchoring, and my choices.

I have read more than a few books on sailing, cruising, etc, and each has at least a section, and many a full chapter, on anchors, site selection and anchoring technique. It is a common thread on websites as well, since a poor anchorage choice is miserable, and poor anchor hardware, and practices are a danger to your own boat, as well as to other's. Commonly, we owners look to the rent-a-boat sailors with some consternation when they approach, as they do not have the practice and experience to make good anchoring choices, and often just put out enough chain or rope (called rode) to "get by", without doing the calculations for a proper ratio. I have only experienced one period when winds and seas were so bad, that boats began to drag anchor, or worse, ground tackle broke, putting the boat adrift, possibly to ram another in the dark of night. It was a rough couple of days and nights. You might recall that I wrote about being struck by a drifting hulk, which had torn loose of its moorings.

If I have read so much and studied it, why am I sitting in a pretty lousy (sorry, Mom) place, AGAIN, tonight? Probably, inexperience. Let me count for the the number of times I have anchored:

1 night inside Captiva Island, south of Tampa Bay.

1 night in Key West.

1 night (actually 2 because I chose poorly) near Fiesta Key, I think, south of Miami.

2 nights in Key Biscayne.

Annapolis for the boat show, with Paul's help and advice.

Several nights in the Severn River, again, with Paul's help.

2 different choices in St George's Bay, Bermuda.

And here, in Marigot Bay, twice now.

That is a total of 8 times in over 2 years that I have, alone and with no advice or suggestions from others, chosen a spot and put down anchor. In that time, I have travelled over 3500 nautical miles, with one 96 hour trip from Miami to North Carolina, one 8 day leg from Norfolk, and one 10 day leg to St Martin. I guess that I have to re-read some of those books and figure out what I am doing wrong. My anchoring skills are OK; (I have only dragged, perhaps twice - in 35 knots in St George's Bay, and about 30 yards that first night after the Regatta here in Marigot.) I just choose to do it in the wrong places!

I should fill in some details about yesterday. The weather could not have been more perfect to try to take a recently repaired boat through a - oh, about 18 foot wide bridge opening, that looks, maybe 10 feet to me - calm winds and flat water. I picked up Bernard about 11 and we decided to pick up chicken dinners and eat here on AF, and then motor around a bit, testing the steering. We ate, upped anchor and drove around a bit. It was the first time I have seen my Rocna anchor in more than 3 months, other than through a diving mask glass, from 15 feet above on the water's surface. The steering worked perfectly. That is, it worked perfectly when turning to port. Starboard, on the other hand, was if-fy. It did not respond very quickly at all, sometimes taking many turns of the wheel to start the rudder moving. Air? Fluid Leak? It did seem to improve a bit, as we rode and turned. (BTW, we missed the 230 opening of the bridge, because we weren't watching the clock closely enough after we ate lunch. That left only the 530 opening.) I turned the wheel as we did messy figure-8's around the bay, away from other boats testing and worrying. I decided to risk it, but had to take Bernard back to his boat yard for a few minutes. We returned to AF, at a new anchorage, and again raised the anchor, and slowly, I motored over near the rocky entrance to the short channel and the bridge. A safe distance from the opening, the depth under us decreased to 8 feet with 3 ft showing on my chart in one place, and I moved away from that area, which took us out of line of sight of the bridge, but there was another boat waiting with us, who, I thought, could see the bridge. The procedure is that first, boats exiting the Lagoon come out, and then the bridge operator changes the light from red to green for the seaward side, and boats can enter. We waited. 530 came and passed. We waited. No boats came out, which would indicate it was time to re-allign AF with the channel. Sitting patiently for 20 minutes (sometimes the bridge opens late due to traffic or ambulances), I finally called on the radio, and there was no response. Several tries later, we gave up, and as we passed another boat at anchor, he shouted that it had opened and then closed. There had been no boats waiting to exit, and when we did not enter, he lowered the bridge. I missed my chance! But, with renewed confidence, I felt that I could enter alone today. That is, until last night when my anchor alarm went off, as the wind had turned, swinging AF along with it, and increased to 20 knots+ again. Today, I have cussed myself all day long, as I bounce and rock again.

I looked at a US Navy weather website, and it looks like it will get worse before it gets better, so I might go in and ask Bernard to come out again and we shall try one more time.

The steering trouble must be resolved and the only thing that I can replace now is the hydraulic cylinder that acually pushes and pulls on the rudder arm. To remove it safely, I must be in calm waters. I think I can have it tested and rebuilt on the Dutch side, after removal, and if not, will buy a replacement of some kind.

Along with that, there are a couple repairs and jobs that I need to be in calm waters to do, and then, I should be able to make plans to depart, and join long-waiting Paul and Joyce, who, at this point, don't think that I will ever depart.

Oh, yeah. The answer to the Title question is: Anywhere away from the place I choose.