By Adrian
I snapped this photo of the chart plotter after 24 hours anchored at Broughton Island. It shows how the boat moved as the wind changed direction. Any guesses where the anchor is?
If you look closely you can see where we came in checking the depth and looking for a sandy spot to drop the anchor, and then looped back with anchor ready.
Over the next 24 hours the wind swung around the compass and we stayed up watching the anchor and the conditions.
When we drop the anchor we reverse against it to make sure it digs in. But what happens when the wind or tide spins us in the opposite direction like this? A good anchor (hopefully the new one we have installed) will pull up and then reset in the new direction. But there are examples where they don’t reset with very messy consequences. Anchors drag along the ground, taking the boat with them, potentially into neighbouring boats, or onto ground.
In this case we started 160m off the beach with 30m to the anchor. The wind was blowing from the south, which means if the anchor was to drag, we would drag out towards the sea which is the safest option. So when the wind blew us round 180 degrees (which we were expecting and ready for) we would end up 100m from the beach if the anchor stayed stationary. This is a lee shore and its not ideal.
We watched closely for any anchor drag. As best we can tell the anchor moved less than 10m as we spun around and it dug in again. A good result and hopefully it work as well in mud and other substances.
