Anchoring

I haven’t talked much about some of the nuts and bolts activity and tools.

I was anchored in this nice little inlet on the Hudson River near Peekskill. Pretty snug in a lagoon about 250 ft wide, well protected except for a small part of the NW quadrant.

I stopped in the evening and spent the next day hunkered down in the rain and SE winds.

The next evening I knew the front was coming through, but I was very protected on three sides. I was reading on the couch about 11 pm when the wind came roaring in from the NW, my vulnerable quadrant. I was swinging around in this little lagoon within about 100 ft of shore. I watched my plot for a while. Anchor was holding firm, as expected. I was using a 20 kg claw on an all rope rode. In 5 ft of water I had about 60 feet out.

I checked radar and forecasts and it didn’t look dire, but as time went by the waves started building. It’s about a mile to the other side of the river there, so enough fetch to send a chop directly into my bay. And it started pouring rain again. Wind was about 25 knots and very gusty.

I almost always sit in my cockpit when it’s raining. There’s a big overhang and at anchor there’s a dry area. I was sitting there watching the little lagoon get more and more angry. The walls were vertical man made, and it was turning into a washing machine. And the wall wasn’t more than 120 feet away. Not much time to respond if I were to start dragging. So I started the motor, sat monitoring the situation, and about 20 minutes later when the rain stopped I decided to get underway.

I knew I could follow my GPS path out of the inlet, and there was a decent looking anchorage on the opposite shore.

This is where I miss having a windlass. It often takes a couple of trips back and forths between the bow and the helm, and I didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver as the shore was maybe 3 boatlengths to leeward. And in a breeze the bow falls off fast. There wasn’t a lot of room for error or mishap.

I did it. Got the adrenaline going 🙂

I anchored in an area on the other side where I had lots of room to swing. Good thing, as the wind shifted through 180 degrees with some major gusts through the night. Here’s my path at anchor.

Whenever I anchor I set both an alarm and tracking on my phone. I generally sleep soundly as long as I have lots of room to swing. But I didn’t sleep well, and was up not long after dawn to head north.