Anchoring With Wind Opposing Tide
Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 1:44 pm
We used to really struggle to anchor in Dartmouth when the wind was against the tide - which is often the case.
We'd end up with the wind pushing the stern around so we'd effectively "ride the anchor" from one side to the other, then the situation would reverse, and we'd cross back over again. This would repeat until the tide turned. Six hours of stress, when we couldn't safely leave the boat.
Sometimes at the limit of travel, after picking up some considerable speed, we'd really slam to a halt which obviously was putting a massive load on the anchor.
One time we met a large boat coming the other way - somehow we avoided any damage.
A local liveaboard called John told us what to do.
Steer on purpose to one side (we found by trial and error that it's best to choose the side the wind is mostly coming from. If it's absolutely 180 degrees against the tide, either way is fine. Don't just the helm hard over and leave it there. Put it hard over to initiate the travel, then straighten up. As you come to a stop when the anchor rode goes tight, put the helm hard over again. This should lock you in position. Once done, then deploy a drogue from the bow, into the current.
We'd often streamed two buckets and a drogue from the stern which did seem to help a little, but now and then we'd repeat "the anchor dance" as it became fondly known. By instead streaming the drogue and sometimes a bucket also from the bow, we completely eliminated the problem.
Thank you John!
Here's a short video showing some boats "dancing" and us completely stable, with a diagram...
http://youtu.be/Gi80CyGyRBc
We'd end up with the wind pushing the stern around so we'd effectively "ride the anchor" from one side to the other, then the situation would reverse, and we'd cross back over again. This would repeat until the tide turned. Six hours of stress, when we couldn't safely leave the boat.
Sometimes at the limit of travel, after picking up some considerable speed, we'd really slam to a halt which obviously was putting a massive load on the anchor.
One time we met a large boat coming the other way - somehow we avoided any damage.
A local liveaboard called John told us what to do.
Steer on purpose to one side (we found by trial and error that it's best to choose the side the wind is mostly coming from. If it's absolutely 180 degrees against the tide, either way is fine. Don't just the helm hard over and leave it there. Put it hard over to initiate the travel, then straighten up. As you come to a stop when the anchor rode goes tight, put the helm hard over again. This should lock you in position. Once done, then deploy a drogue from the bow, into the current.
We'd often streamed two buckets and a drogue from the stern which did seem to help a little, but now and then we'd repeat "the anchor dance" as it became fondly known. By instead streaming the drogue and sometimes a bucket also from the bow, we completely eliminated the problem.
Thank you John!
Here's a short video showing some boats "dancing" and us completely stable, with a diagram...
http://youtu.be/Gi80CyGyRBc