Mooring Etiquette : Questions

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

If you can locate your anchor's position within 10 or 15 feet that way, you are a MUCH better judge than I am... good onya!

But still, you really need to know how much rode they have deployed, even if they have an anchor buoy which precisely locates their anchor for you. Why? because you can't know if their rode is stretched out straight or is lying in loops, laid down as the boat wanders in light conditions. If it is blowing harder, it is a reasonable assumption that it is straight or nearly so, but not otherwise.

Anyhow, just making the contact is a good start to joining the anchored fleet.

Jim

Ah! Valid points all! I have suffered from the assumption that whatever was down there was laid out more or less in one direction!

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

If you can locate your anchor's position within 10 or 15 feet that way, you are a MUCH better judge than I am... good onya!
Jim

After some reflection I see that that may seem like a bit of truth-challenged hyperbole that is all the rage roun' these parts these days, literally and figuratively... but actually I cheat a bit.. these are local anchorages I know pretty well and I'm using various landmarks, points, rocks, trees, and bushes that are pretty close as range markers too.. in an unfamiliar anchorage I'd know my anchor's location with 12.3' to 17.5'

[CareKnot]

Originally Posted by Don C L

After some reflection I see that that may seem like a bit of truth-challenged hyperbole that is all the rage roun' these parts these days, literally and figuratively... but actually I cheat a bit.. these are local anchorages I know pretty well and I'm using various landmarks, points, rocks, trees, and bushes that are pretty close as range markers too.. in an unfamiliar anchorage I'd know my anchor's location with 12.3' to 17.5'

Hi Don,

Have yous seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR2fVAFxOIQ

[CarinaPDX]

Having tried to find lost anchors for skippers who absolutely knew exactly where they were tells me this thread is drifting into fantasyland. 10 feet? 100' if you're very lucky.

Greg

[Lodesman]

Doesn't anyone push the anchor button on their gps/chartplotter/Vesper Watchmate/whatever at anchor "let go"?
Assuming you don't go on to plow a mile-long furrow when you "set your anchor", it will give a pretty accurate location to reference. For the paper-only Luddites, a fix should be taken at let go, and the anchor's position plotted.
If you don't know where your anchor is, then the swinging circle is fantasy.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I believe he said that 40ft was the closest they got on opposite swings.. not that they were laying 40ft apart.. if your familiar with anchoring you'll know that gives you a pretty safe radius.

The OP also said "beam to beam", and he also said he had fenders out. I'm familiar with anchoring, but don't see how that gives a safe radius. Frankly, we have too little information, other than the OP admitting he anchored "parallel" to the other boat; we'd really need to know how far apart their anchors were, to judge if it was a safe distance.

As to overlapping swinging circles, in a perfect world with wide open space, it only makes sense to keep the swinging circles apart. - as it is impossible to contact the other vessel. A couple weeks on the ball in St Augustine, with a strong current that reverses every 6 hours was proof enough that even boats of similar characteristics will swing in wildly different directions.
Of course the world is far from perfect and lots of great anchorages have more boats and less space than is desirable - and overlapping swinging circles are inevitable. Something that hasn't been mentioned, is that you should avoid dropping your anchor in another boat's swinging circle. The immediate upside is that you won't need to nudge another boat when you're weighing anchor. Then again you might not know where another boat's anchor is, but one can usually make an educated guess.
I guess it should be mentioned that some anchorages are so crowded that even that little rule must be bent. Done it, don't like it - it's worth looking for another place to anchor.

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by bobnlesley

"...cruise by and if anyone is on deck I ask them what scope they have out. I've been surprised be the number of boats that simply don't know how much rode they have out..."

I've found that quite often too; though one of the things experience has taught us is how to ask the question in six different languages, it's up there with hello/goodbye/yes/no/please/thankyou/two beers as one of the key-phrase to learn.

There were several posts about following boats zooming-in and snagging your intended spot and someone, Barra or ScottUK? Referred to such a thing in Canna off the west of Scotland, that raised a memorable smile, perhaps we met the same boat? We were manouvering slowly in that very anchorage perhaps 12-14 years ago, edging to windward with the anchor already dangling when another yacht chopped in across our starboard bow doing perhas 4-5 five knots whilst shouting that he was "stand-on vessel and we needed to give way"; we'd no option, it was either swerve port or t-bone him. Whilst regaining our composure and muttering a few choice phrases, we watched said yacht swing his own bow around and continue on directly toward our chosen spot for perhaps five to six seconds, before he went hard aground; there was a well charted shallow area that our 4' draft comfortably cleared even at low tide, but obviously not his 6-7'; kharma does sometimes work

I dream of moments like that.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by CareKnot

Hi Don,

Have yous seen this?

Thanks Phillip! But I think I am still, to use Lodesman's inartful turn of phraseology... a Luddite!

[CarinaPDX]

Long Live Luddites!

[Scottuk]

Originally Posted by bobnlesley

There were several posts about following boats zooming-in and snagging your intended spot and someone, Barra or ScottUK? Referred to such a thing in Canna off the west of Scotland, that raised a memorable smile, perhaps we met the same boat? We were manouvering slowly in that very anchorage perhaps 12-14 years ago, edging to windward with the anchor already dangling when another yacht chopped in across our starboard bow doing perhas 4-5 five knots whilst shouting that he was "stand-on vessel and we needed to give way"; we'd no option, it was either swerve port or t-bone him. Whilst regaining our composure and muttering a few choice phrases, we watched said yacht swing his own bow around and continue on directly toward our chosen spot for perhaps five to six seconds, before he went hard aground; there was a well charted shallow area that our 4' draft comfortably cleared even at low tide, but obviously not his 6-7'; kharma does sometimes work

Nice to see some justice in the world though maybe a little to harsh for this particular transgression.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Doesn't anyone push the anchor button on their gps/chartplotter/Vesper Watchmate/whatever at anchor "let go"?
Assuming you don't go on to plow a mile-long furrow when you "set your anchor", it will give a pretty accurate location to reference. For the paper-only Luddites, a fix should be taken at let go, and the anchor's position plotted.
If you don't know where your anchor is, then the swinging circle is fantasy.

Yes, I do, and I completely agree with all of this.

But even pushing the "create waypoint at vessel position" button is not really necessary -- if you are displaying a track on your plotter, then you can see quite clearly where you dropped the anchor, if you are watching the plotter when you let the anchor go.

A chart plotter with a very accurate GPS receiver, with track displayed, is an excellent tool for anchoring. You can see more clearly than by using a transit when the anchor sets, when SOG goes to 0 or when COG goes perpendicular to the direction to the anchor. The arc drawn by the plotter track shows clearly how you're holding, and will even show you where the anchor is, by simple geometry, if you forgot to mark the spot, or notice where on your track the anchor went in.

GPS receivers usually have much better CONSISTENCY between different positions, than EPE. So if you have a modern GNSS receiver like the Simrad GS25 (which costs less than $200), which can get to about 2 meters using EGNOS, then the relative positions will be accurate to even much less than that. This can really help you figure out a lot of things you need to know, when anchoring.

[FSMike]

I sometimes forget how easy we have it in the Bahamas. If I want to know where my anchor is I just look down lol.

[Zai]

http://www.dronestagr.am/wp-content/...1-1200x674.jpg

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Zai

http://www.dronestagr.am/wp-content/...1-1200x674.jpg

Just needs one boat without a holding tank[emoji4]

[Scotty Kiwi]

Good on Don for mentioning taking a couple of visual bearings when dropping the anchor.

When dropping the pick, as part of checking the depth, line up a part of a rock up with a distant tree or a high point on a ridge; look in another direction (around 90 degrees) and do the same, and you'll have you anchor drop point within less than a meter. With a sharp mind this can be done in seconds, as long as landmarks are available.

Repeat the process once at rest.

If the landmarks are on the chart you'll be able to pencil the two positions. No need for the fancy gear. It gives some basis for guessing who else is or isn't over your anchor, and their swing, and a basis for your polite request that they drop theirs a few meters this way or that. And your drag, or lack of drag.

(The same process works in cities, especially foreign ones. Your ability to find your own way back to your accommodation without a map will amaze your guests and companions. Don't let them know you took a couple of bearings before you left and pretend you are sniffing your way back home, or using your bat radar navigation sixth sense haha).

The limitation is that the landmarks have to be there, not look exactly like other landmarks, and the hardest bit you've gotta remember them (a couple of phone snap shots could fix this). And the whole system turns to crap anyway on a dark or stormy night when you most need it, when your spotlight fails even once you've remembered where you put it, and you think you might be dragging but maybe its not you, it's those on-the-piss fools with the pirate flag, and even if you could find your glasses and you can't see the damn landmarks through the spray you can only hear the surf crashing into them, and getting louder. Anyway. Is that why I sold the boat? Or perhaps that's when you turn the chart plotter on again?