Leaving the boat at anchor: remote monitoring, contact info, engine key

[Jammer]

I am curious what you customarily do when leaving your boat unattended at anchor for a period of time -- perhaps a day, an evening, or a few days while attending to matters ashore.

Do you utilize any remote monitoring so that you receive alerts via cell phone (or DSC)? If so, what equipment do you use? How does that work out? How does it work out in remote areas without good cellular service?

Do you post contact information on your boat so that passing boats can contact you if they see something amiss? Some boats post a cell phone number on a sign at the lifeline gate, for example. Again, how has that worked out?

Do you leave the engine key in the panel so that someone can more readily reset your anchor if they encounter your boat adrift?

Do you leave fenders out even if there are no boats nearby, on the chance that some may arrive?

For clarity, I have fantastic ground tackle, insurance, etc. and am talking hours or days not weeks....

[rslifkin]

The longest I've left ours unattended at anchor is a few hours. My policy with the boat at anchor is chartplotter either on or in standby, fume detector on, keys in the ignitions. I've never left the boat at anchor in a situation where I wasn't comfortable leaving it that way. So far I've never had any kind of issue, and realistically, if the weather was iffy I probably wouldn't leave the boat unattended, especially not for longer than a quick shore run with the dog.

For monitoring, we have a few exterior cameras and a few things monitored via the Victron Cerbo GX. We'll get alerts for high or low temperature in both the salon and engine room, high or low battery temperature, as well as the bilge high water alarm (alerts via the Cerbo in addition to the audible alarm). The only thing I haven't set up is a remotely monitored anchor alarm, but I could probably do that with the Victron VRM geofence feature and a USB GPS puck hooked up to the Cerbo.

[sailorboy1]

My engine key was always in the panel and the hatches weren't even locked. Anyone who knows enough to steal a boat knows how to jump start and diesel and anyone broading to steal stuff would just break stuff to get in.

If there was someone in the anchorage I trusted I would ask them to watch my boat (they always said yes and took it pretty seriously sending me texts and photos). Other than that I didn't say anything to anyone as why would I let people know my boat was ready to be robbed?

I didn't have any remote monitoring. Anyone who went into the boat to find who owned it would easily find my boat cards etc and LEOs would just use the registration info.

In my experience in cruising and anchoring out the people breaking in boats to steak stuff were other boaters.