Anchor | Capt. Dan's Sail Channel Islands

Sancerre on two hooks at Willows
Anchoring bow and stern …. The One True Way.

Sounds religious, doesn’t it?

And it does have a religious sort of feel what with all the conflicting opinions and several bibles that are in conflict. Me, I’m an agnostic in this matter.

First – some things to consider.

What is the depth and – as important – what is the beach gradient (how much does it slope). If the stern anchor is in 12 feet of water and the bow in 50 feet (as is sometimes the case at Santa Cruz), you’ve got some interesting rode calculations.

Let’s do this with a scenario – it’s daylight and we’re in a very narrow anchorage, cliffs on one side and rocks 100′ away on the other side. There is a light on shore breeze, but we anticipate it will shift to off-shore or die during the evening. Finally, we’re on a sand bottom that is fairly level. We elect to drop the hook in 20′ of water.

First way. Drive into the wind, stop, drop the bow hook, pay out 175′ of rode (7*(20+5). Set the bow anchor.
Now, launch the dinghy and drag out 175′ astern. Being careful not to get the stern rode fouled in the prop, motor forward to set the stern anchor.

Way numero two-o.
Motor into the wind, drop bow anchor, pay out 350-400 feet of rode. (This is fairly tricky because it’s hard to estimate where 400 feet is going to put your stern). Set the bow anchor.
Drop the stern anchor and slooooooowly motor forward, being very careful to keep the stern rode clear of the screw while simultaneously taking in the bow rode until you’ve got 175-200 feet at each end. Set the stern. Take slack out of rode.

A variation on this theme is dropping the stern hook first. That works fine as long as you have the stern into the wind. We do this at Fry’s all of the time, dropping the hook when there is a slight on-shore breeze in the afternoon, but anticipating night canyon winds.

In any event, always set the windward anchor first and retrieve it last.

Now double check the tide tables. If you’re on the low and anticipate more than a couple of feet rise, leave a little slack in the rode. If you’re high and going down, anticipate that your alignment will curve to leeward. Either take out the slack when the water recedes or live with the slop. (I usually live with it.)

If you’re in 12 feet of water astern and 50 at the bow, drop the bow anchor first, veer out about 450′ of rode (not many boats carry that much), so that you end up with about 350 on the bow and 90 astern.

Remember, it’s the angle between the anchor and the cleat that determines holding power. And also remember that just because the wind is blowing from the W when you anchor, it may not stay that way all night. We frequently experience 180 degree wind shifts – so called canyon winds – and that means what you had considered your primary anchor is now downwind. So both have to be well set.

When you’re ready to leave and the wind has shifted, pick up your leeward anchor first. In an emergency (unpredicted Santa Ana for instance), be prepared to abandon your leeward anchor. Tie a fender to it if you have time. In a pinch, with the winds pushing you onshore, be prepared to abandon both anchors.

I’ve anchored bow and stern quite a number of times. Even with all that practice, things can go to hell. I’ve had one anchor set and the second one not, I’ve been blown out of the anchorage by strong crosswinds, I’ve ended up with insufficient rode at one end or the other etc.

I’ve screwed it up almost every way possible. Anchoring with 2 anchors – at least around here – is 8x as tough as a single hook. Capt. Dan’s Law is that the difficulty of anchoring increases as the cube of the number of anchors …. but that’s probably optimistic.

So if it’s so hard, why do it?

In places like Fry’s, Diablo, Willows, Alberts there is simply not enough room to swing. Other times – this coming Labor Day weekend, for instance, there are so many boats in the anchorage that it’s the only way to squeeze in. In general, the first boat in the anchorage gets to call the shot. If he puts down two, we all put down two.

If you’re going to Prisoner’s this weekend figuring you’ll be on one-hook with a dozen other boats, don’t be surprised if everyone ahead of you has put down two hooks and that there are substantially more than a dozen boats. Last year there were 60 boats in there.

Have a great weekend.

See you on the water

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Sancerre rides to bow and stern anchors. Note the shallow angle of each rode. That’s what gives you holding power. The bow anchor looks a little steep, but that is because the bow hook is on a snubber. We’re pulled tight between the two hooks.

I got an inquiry about anchoring at some of our favorite spots a few days ago. They seemed like good questions, so here they are followed by my answers.

For the first time I’ll be setting anchor at Santa Cruz Island this summer for a week. I have a number of questions for someone with your experience. I have a Hunter 430 (43 foot) fractional sloop. I currently have a 45lb. Danforth bow anchor with 200 foot chain rode and 200 foot rope rode. I have a 25lb. stern Danforth anchor. My questions are:

1. From the research I’ve done it appears that I’ll encounter mostly, if not exclusively, sand seafloors? Is this information accurate?
2. I’ll be arriving the last week in July and staying through the first week in August. What type of weather, winds, and current conditions will I likely experience?
3. In your experience, with the anchor and rode I have be sufficient to anchor safely in the primary anchorages such as Scorpion Bay, Diablo, Pelican, Potato, etc.?
4. How crowded should I expect these anchorages to be at the end of July?
5. Any other information you think might be helpful for a first timer to Santa

And my response:
If you don’t already own Brian Fagan’s cruising guide, I strongly suggest that you get it and read about all of the anchorages. I’ve got a link to a bunch sailing books that you can access from my homepage by clicking – guess what – sailing books. It’s towards the bottom of the links.

You’ve probably discovered my cruising guide, which I put together as a supplement and update to Brian’s work.

Now to your questions:

First of all – Weather. The end of July is usually gorgeous. But temps can be low at night. And there won’t be a lot of bikini time during the day. Gorgeous or not, you must be prepared for big wind and big seas. Those can come up at any time. The good news is you’re unlikely to encounter a Santa Ana.

The prevailing wind is west. If you venture from your anchorage, Windy lane will be a big factor. However, if you know how to tie in a reef quickly, it’s not a problem, though the ride can be a bit choppy. Slight variations in wind and swell direction will dictate going to various anchorages. Our refuge anchorage in big west wind is Yellowbanks. Get acquainted with that spot. I’ve found it useful to be able to get in there in the dark using radar, gps and depthdsounder after evacuating an uncomfortable mooring farther west.

During the week you’re going to have the island mostly to yourself, particularly in the south coast anchorages. I suspect that traffic will be considerably less than last year as most motor yachts are likely to stay tied up with diesel at $5/gal.

Your ground tackle sounds adequate for most anchorages at Santa Cruz. I’d check the West Marine advisor pages to see if that stern anchor is heavy enough. Be aware that Danforths don’t do well in eel grass and that is a problem from time to time in many of the anchorages. When setting two anchors, make sure your windward anchor is set solidly before you deploy your downwind anchor. It can be harrowing if you have two anchors out and neither is holding, worse if you’ve got two out and your downwind anchor is set and the other is not.

You don’t specify how much rode you have astern. We have 350′ and I’ve sometimes wished I had 400 as I do at the bow.

Make a circuit of the anchorage before dropping a hook and note the depths carefully. The beach gradient is amazing in some spots. In the Grotto, for instance, our stern hook was in 18′ and or bow in 50′.

BTW, we have a French Plow on the bow and a Fortress astern.

Anchoring bow and stern can be a bit tricky. If you haven’t done it, go practice before your trip. We watched some experienced yachtsmen flail around for four hours trying to set two hooks in Fry’s. They eventually fouled their prop. We were able to take a line from them and winch them away from the rocks. Fortunately, winds were light all night and we were able to keep them safe until morning when they were able to clear their prop.

If you have more questions, give me a call 805.750.7828.

dan

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Anchoring bow and stern

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