They say cruising is a lifelong pastime and that you never stop learning. Here’s a useful anchoring technique that will make narrow anchorages safer and more secure.
They say that variety is the spice of life and to keep a sailing relationship fresh, you sometimes have to vary your techniques. For example, when was the last time you used a different anchoring technique? In fact, have you ever? Or do you just stick to the same old, traditional method… using hand signals obviously. You may not have needed to or if you did, you decided to go and anchor somewhere else, taking the “easier option.” Well, shame on you, you could be missing out on all the fun! Here’s a couple of examples from when I have been teaching:
I was heading down to Petite St. Vincent with some ASA 104 students, practising paper navigation between the reefs, when one of the students started talking about pelicans and how elegant they were, especially whilst they were fishing. I commented that there was a place north of Petite St. Vincent, where I had regularly seen pelicans fishing. “ We want to go there,” they said in and so a plan was hatched in my head for some anchoring practice.
This spot to the north of Petite St. Vincent, although charted as an anchorage, it is seldom used, probably for two reasons. There are reefs on the beach side and on the seaward side and less than 300 ft in between. Plus there is a tidal current that turns the boat through 180 degrees. Read more.
