A sincere request

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

The closer you are to the other boats the somer you know about your boat dragging across the anchorage

Well just be sure to take time to raise the Yankee signal flag while you are dragging your anchor and whistle while you tangle with others that are at anchor as you go by.

I am not sure why the signal for dragging anchor was assigned Yankee; its red and yellow stripes are rather distinctive. I've been bumped into by a few draggers, and reciprocated once, which gave occasion to then raft up since we were so cozily entwined anyway and wanting to wait until things calmed down to sort it out the next morning.

[Jim Cate]

A friend who was an off duty Deputy Sheriff that was among our drunken lot saw that they were considering to stay near us, so he threw a beer can into the water, took out his semiautomatic pistol and quickly emptied his clip [about 15 rounds] targeting the can,

good grief!

Was he perchance stationed in Lake County?

Just the kind of leo that you like to have "serving and protecting" in your home town...or anchorage.

Jim

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by Greg Mason

Aw, I don't know. Catch a fish, you'll have company. Only boat in the anchorage, someone will undoubtedly anchor within your swing circle, thinking all boats swing the same way at the same time. Not sure why, but I sure know it happens. I started putting a float on my anchor so others would know where it was when I anchored. My most favourite move is to see 20' of chain and a mile of rode put down, almost assured you will be rafted at some point. That's using 100% of the anchorage. Manners are different than knowledge, I try to use some of each.

We put a float on our anchor too! Where we anchor there's always tons of room & absolutely no reason to anchor right on top of us but it still happens. Really irritating. We usually move but that's hard to do when they float down right over your anchor.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

good grief!

Was he perchance stationed in Lake County?

Just the kind of leo that you like to have "serving and protecting" in your home town...or anchorage.

Jim

Don't recall which county was his jurisdiction [perhaps Sacramento] but he was one of our "designated drivers" while at anchor and was the go to person for interactions with the LEO's and CAL FWP that might be dispatched our way to deal with "disturbance" notifications, or boat inspections. I do recall that he was huge and immensely strong, once when my brother and I, working together were struggling to carry a single keg of beer the long ways out to the end of the floating pier to the houseboat, we looked back to see him single-handed carrying two kegs, one on each shoulder. Made us feel like wimps. I think he asked us if we needed a hand with our keg when he walked past us out to the boat. He was also really handsome, [imagine Thor in Avengers 2] and as kind and sincere of a person that you could ever hope to meet. Definitely garnered the attention of the ladies, one had to help them lift their jaws back in place when he passed by. "OMG, drop dead gorgeous" was often their lustful remark between the ladies.

If anyone was to ask, the story on board was that he was just keeping up with his job's firearms proficiency requirements and making his weapon safe for our voyage by emptying it of ammunition, just in case some drunk was to mishandle it.

Much younger and crazier times.

[desodave]

Floats over anchors? That's a good way to screw up an anchorage for everyone else. Add a 15' tidal range to that and the float's all over the place and there's even less room - assuming you anticipated the range and the float's not under the surface and now a hazard.

[Sojourner]

I'm interested in how I'll handle cruising the Caribbean next season, but for now, here in Italy, crowds are the norm. That nice empty anchorage at noon will turn into a chitshow by 5. So anticipate it. I always park on the edge of whatever anchorage we're in even if it is absolutely empty. I have a good large-enough boat with a great all chain anchor setup....I'm not bothered by a bit of swell and wind doesn't scare me, and at 12 knots+ any extra distance to town/shore will be on the scale of a minute or two. Then I sit back with my drinks and cats and watch all the other boats crowd around as close as they can get to the shore or old town and laauuughhhh from the other side of the anchorage, where if I'm not all by myself, at least I'm only surrounded on one side And with my deep draft (2 and a half meters) upon reflection in the caribbean i'll be farthest out because of necessity anyway

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by desodave

Floats over anchors? That's a good way to screw up an anchorage for everyone else. Add a 15' tidal range to that and the float's all over the place and there's even less room - assuming you anticipated the range and the float's not under the surface and now a hazard.

Sorry but that just doesn't apply to our area. Our range is more like 5' and we're not talking about a crowded anchorage. Having someone anchor directly upwind of us & then float down right on top of our anchor is inconsiderate & unnecessary. Putting a float out at least shows the idiot where our anchor is.

[MartinR]

For anyone entering an anchorage at night floats are a nuisance. Worst case, line in propeller, anchor tripped, two drifting boats in the anchorage.

Worst case without float: The other boat ends up on top of your anchor. When you need to heave, just give them a shout, they move a bit forward, all solved.

[flyingfin]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

You might be better off just staying at sea and heaving to??

Most excellent advice for the OP!

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

I'm interested in how I'll handle cruising the Caribbean next season, but for now, here in Italy, crowds are the norm. That nice empty anchorage at noon will turn into a chitshow by 5. So anticipate it. I always park on the edge of whatever anchorage we're in even if it is absolutely empty. I have a good large-enough boat with a great all chain anchor setup....I'm not bothered by a bit of swell and wind doesn't scare me, and at 12 knots+ any extra distance to town/shore will be on the scale of a minute or two. Then I sit back with my drinks and cats and watch all the other boats crowd around as close as they can get to the shore or old town and laauuughhhh from the other side of the anchorage, where if I'm not all by myself, at least I'm only surrounded on one side And with my deep draft (2 and a half meters) upon reflection in the caribbean i'll be farthest out because of necessity anyway

We do the same, which generally works out nice. While others we know cause themselves unnecessary stress by "claiming their spots" in crowded anchorages, then letting out ridiculous amounts of chain and wasting their days protecting their turf by exercising their "bitch wings."

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by MartinR

For anyone entering an anchorage at night floats are a nuisance. Worst case, line in propeller, anchor tripped, two drifting boats in the anchorage.

Worst case without float: The other boat ends up on top of your anchor. When you need to heave, just give them a shout, they move a bit forward, all solved.

We typically anchor in 5-10 feet of water. If you're running your boat 50' off the bows of anchored boats at night in an uncrowded anchorage my anchor float is the least of your problems.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

We typically anchor in 5-10 feet of water. If you're running your ue my anchor float is the least of your problems.

No argument that other boats (and dinghies) cutting close by your bow is a mistake by the other party but still can result in a major headache for you. I have lost an anchor once and had to really work to recover jammed anchors a couple of times and thought seriously about using a float but after reading a couple of threads here decided the potential downsides were worse than the benefits.

In addition to other boats and dinghies snagging your buoy and possibly tripping your anchor I read about reports of boats coming it and tying up to an anchor buoy thinking it was a mooring.

Sure most of the downsides are due to "the other guy" but again, that doesn't mean it doesn't end up as your problem when that other guy screws up.

My plan if/when I anchor in an area where there's a risk of snags, rocks or other anchoring problems is to tie a trip line to the anchor but then secure that line to my anchor chain. Easy enough to recover it when retrieving the anchor.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

We put a float on our anchor too! Where we anchor there's always tons of room & absolutely no reason to anchor right on top of us but it still happens. Really irritating. We usually move but that's hard to do when they float down right over your anchor.

Anchor floats screw up the anchorage big time. If there is tidal flow, reversals, ind direction changes someone is bound to swing over the thing unless you expect all boats to stay 5-7 scope away. This is both rude and greedy as well as possibly dangerous. Swinging boats are sure to pick up your float in the running gear and now you are conjoined. Since all boats swing together there will certainly be someone swinging over your anchor. This has never caused us any difficulty. Anchor floats are like Corvette drivers parking diagonally over three or more parking spots.

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Anchor floats screw up the anchorage big time. If there is tidal flow, reversals, ind direction changes someone is bound to swing over the thing unless you expect all boats to stay 5-7 scope away. This is both rude and greedy as well as possibly dangerous. Swinging boats are sure to pick up your float in the running gear and now you are conjoined. Since all boats swing together there will certainly be someone swinging over your anchor. This has never caused us any difficulty. Anchor floats are like Corvette drivers parking diagonally over three or more parking spots.

I don't know if you're not actually reading the posts or just don't understand so, for the third time, I'm not talking about a busy anchorage. I'm talking about an anchorage where there's tons of room & it's NEVER necessary to anchor on top of someone. However, due to the herd mentality or for whatever reason someone decides to anchor on top of us anyway. There's nothing rude about a float 50' off my bow where you have absolutely no business being in the first place. If we're in a busy anchorage we don't put out a float but the point of this thread is people anchoring on top of you when it's not necessary.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

I don't know if you're not actually reading the posts or just don't understand so, for the third time, I'm not talking about a busy anchorage. I'm talking about an anchorage where there's tons of room & it's NEVER necessary to anchor on top of someone. However, due to the herd mentality or for whatever reason someone decides to anchor on top of us anyway. There's nothing rude about a float 50' off my bow where you have absolutely no business being in the first place. If we're in a busy anchorage we don't put out a float but the point of this thread is people anchoring on top of you when it's not necessary.

We find that anchor balls on other boats provide us with an endless source of entertainment as we watch charter boats attempt to moor onto them.