[Public-List] Anchor rode

Tue Mar 11 10:48:05 PDT 2025

So there we were…

Many years ago when the boys were small… we’d dropped a bow anchor in Frying Pan Harbour then backed a ways toward the shore and sent a line in to hold us stern to.   We had a very nice afternoon letting the boys learning boat handling skills playing with the dinghy; I snapped its painter onto the stern line to keep them near as they used it to get to the beach and back.

However, by supper time we found ourselves hemmed in by ‘cakes’… those towering multi-level cabin cruisers.   They all started their diesel generators… television sets and even a loud conversation (voices raised over their gen set’s rumble) about a hideous surgery.

We decided to move.  The sun was going down so we were in a hurry to get settled again.  We went to an open space toward the entrance of the flask-shaped cove and dropped the CQR, set it, then dropped the AP in the direction the wind was supposed to come from after midnight to limit our swing.  We slept soundly in complete solitude.

After breakfast, up came the CQR on its chain, then we began hauling up the AP.  It didn’t want to come up.  We put the rope on the rope drum of the Lofrans and hauled away… it was coming up but was obviously bringing something with it.  Something very heavy.   The bow was actually going down… what could it be?  A waterlogged tree?  A wreck?

Then, after much hauling… the anchor came in sight… draped over it at a very flat angle was a thick cable HOLY CRAP A POWER LINE OH NO!!!!

I said to the family… it was going to get us it would have got us already.   Let’s get it off.  We pulled it up a little more until I could get a line under it.  Then we slacked away the AP’s anchor line so we could get it’s fluke out from around the power cable, then cast off the first line.  The cable sank and we were free.

When our hearts stopped racing we looked at the chart… yup - electrical power line.  In our hurry the night before I hadn’t checked for that, hadn’t even suspected it but of course should have.

The best boat stories always end ‘we were lucky that time’.

Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
705-527-9612

> On Mar 11, 2025, at 1:28 PM, Jason Jernigan via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> All,
> Lora has 150' of chain and 100' of rode with 15KG Rocna and a manual
> Lofrans windlass. It is certainly overkill for the Chesapeake Bay, however
> in the South Pacific it was enough to anchor in 60' on more than one
> occasion and most anchorages were over 40'. I think this setup was just
> right for me. The Lofrans is great when it works, the derlin bushings in it
> will swell and the unit will get really stiff, I had this happen twice. The
> second time I put a cut lengthwise in the bushings and it has worked fine
> ever since.
> I learned that I could pull it by hand from 50' when the windlass was
> acting up, but it was a lot of work.
> Jason
> 
> On Tue, Mar 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM George Dinwiddie via Public-List <
> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
>> Gord,
>> 
>> On an outing many years ago, things just didn't "feel right" a number of
>> times during the night. I took compass measurements to lights on shore,
>> and sure enough we were dragging slowly. I let out more scope and backed
>> down on it. Things still didn't feel right, but I didn't seem to be
>> dragging onto anyone.
>> 
>> When I pulled up the anchor in the morning, I found that I had dropped
>> the anchor in the middle of a plastic garbage bag. The points of the
>> Danforth were poking through the bag, but not far enough to get a good
>> bite on the bottom.
>> 
>>  - George
>> 
>> On 3/8/25 9:33 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List wrote:
>>> Funny anchoring story…
>>> 
>>> So there we were… merrily at anchor up the coast here on Georgian Bay,
>> in a normally quite secure cove.   But what ho… up came a terrific wind
>> during the afternoon, unfortunately for us aligned just about perfectly
>> with the north western end of the cove.   Over a couple of hours the wind
>> built till the NW end of the cove looked like the rapids in a river, short
>> steep waves being whipped up, and poor SURPRISE began sawing back and forth
>> tacking at her anchor, snatching hard at it at the end of each swing.  We
>> had the 25lb plough down with about 50’ of chain in 12’ of depth.
>>> 
>>> So, we decided we needed to move over to the side of the cove to get
>> into the shelter of the trees there.  I started the engine; Caroline went
>> forward and began cranking the chain in on the windlass.  I was able to
>> hold the boat still by means of rudder and throttle.
>>> 
>>> As the anchor chain came up, it had a lot of ’salad’ on it (weed)
>> Caroline efficiently plucked gobs of weed off and cast it aside as she
>> worked.  I could see the globs of week going by, driven by the wind… really
>> a lot of week.  I thought that must be why we’d started dragging.
>>> 
>>> Then I heard Caroline yell the hook was off the bottom… then I heard it
>> clunk into the roller.  At the same moment I saw a big magnum sized
>> champagne bottle go by.  What the…
>>> 
>>> Caroline came back laughing.  When the CQR had come up, she found the
>> huge bottle cross wise in the crook of the plough glued in place by clay.
>> It had been acting as a roller preventing the anchor from digging in.
>>> 
>>> Who’d have thunk it….
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Gordon Laco
>>> www.gordonlaco.com
>>> 705-527-9612
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Mar 8, 2025, at 8:36 AM, Michael Grosh via Public-List <
>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Bow roller is a game changer. The second one i installed projects out a
>> little further and has a keeper for keeping the rode from jumping off the
>> roller. Drilled and tapped into the stemhead, fairly elegant, i think. It
>> was the same bolt pattern for mounting, these two.  Next one will go out
>> further yet to accomodate a Bruce or plow, I think.
>>>> I was chewing up the woodwork without the roller, on top of everything
>> else.
>>>> 
>>>> Michael G
>>>> #220
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>> 
>> --
>>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
>>   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
>>   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
>>   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
>>                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
>>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> 
>> 
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