What's The Strangest Thing Your Anchor Picked Up?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by myketch42

About 15 years ago I anchored in the Aves , on the way to Colombia , That morning a very nice looking mermaid came up with my anchor . My girlfriend at the time made me catch and release . Have some regret over that .

Columbia, mermaids?
Wasn't marching powder involved was there? 😉

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by myketch42

About 15 years ago I anchored in the Aves , on the way to Colombia , That morning a very nice looking mermaid came up with my anchor . My girlfriend at the time made me catch and release . Have some regret over that .

It is a well know fact that anchors attract mermaids. But they are tough to land.
Chocolate and champagne sometimes works.

[Howler]

1. Picked up a waterlogged tree trunk (not so original)
2. Picked up the SAME waterlogged tree trunk the following season (more original)

[Wideocean7]

I once watched a documentary called “When Eight Bells Toll” At least I thought it was a documentary??!! Pulled up a dead guy on the end of an anchor. Terrible. 😂🤪

[teneicm]

[teneicm]

[billyehh]

I was wondering why I was dragging when I never do. When pulling up the 20Kg Delta, I found a beer can on the tip.

[jasrclark]

Once while anchored in Leverick Bay BVI, I pulled up a mast and rigging.

Another time anchored off of Santa Cruz Island, California, an octopus was snugly clinging to my Stern anchor. Thought it was a clump of mud until I swiped at it to get it off and it moved. A little startling but pretty cool.

[Siberian Sea]

Last summer I anchored my commercial fishing vessel for the night near a small island close to Sitka Alaska. Early in the morning as I pulled anchor it came up hard, REAL hard. My hydraulic winch was maxed out as the anchor broke surface and I could clearly see I had hooked the main power supply cable for the island I was next too. I tied a line around the cable and secured this line to a Sampson post. Dropped anchor to unhook the anchor and transfer the load to the line. Once anchor was clear I cut the line dropping the cable to the bottom. Interesting enough there was no indication on the charts nor markers of the shore warning of this cable.

[JPA Cate]

^^^^^
That could have been very bad for you, good on you for getting free without its breaking! Would you mind posting the coordinates for the cable? or perhaps you didn't have a chance to mark it?

Thanks in advance.

Ann

[hjohnson]

Not as exciting as some here, but once while gunkholing in the Gulf Islands (British Columbia) we hauled up a motorcycle tire.

Given that tirefish are a bit hard on the teeth, and smell really bad when you grill them, we tossed it back.

[Jamme]

The real answer: a car tire.
The sailors’ version: a whole darn car, engine still running.
[emoji3]

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by ejs

An entire trash bag of diapers, kept the anchor from setting at all. A shopping cart and an old truck tire. We also saw someone else bring up a tricycle. All in Pago Pago , 7 years after the tsunami in 2009.

We were there a few years before you. The tsunami left all sorts of crap on the bottom. We had to try to anchor about six times with something fouling our anchor. We brought up a lawn chair and a heavy duty plastic feed bag. I guy near us tried to get a hook about thirty times with his CQR, hauling it up by hand (boat was around 40') before giving up. He took a perhaps sketchy mooring.

[jipcho]

Once, while securing my anchor after picking up, I found a tiny, cute baby octopus, maybe 1/2 an inch long. It was still alive, so, after observing it's movements for a couple of minutes, I returned it to it's home in the bay, a remote anchorage in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu.

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by jipcho

Once, while securing my anchor after picking up, I found a tiny, cute baby octopus, maybe 1/2 an inch long. It was still alive, so, after observing it's movements for a couple of minutes, I returned it to it's home in the bay, a remote anchorage in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu.

Did your tiny cute octopus happen to have little blue rings on its skin?