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From: Rick the Mouseherder (no email)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 09:32:28 EDT
I trust that you have some 50 ft of chain for each of the spare anchors as
well as oversized anchor shackles so that you chain things together. Coral
can be really rough on line and the extra weight helps any anchor. A good
trick that I picked up from Earl Heinz's book on anchoring is to carry a
small mooring ball. The mooring ball will float on the surface and keep the
line off the bottom and away from coral. Then instead of centenary effect
where the weight of the chain pulls down, you have a kind of reverse
centenary effect, pulling the mooring buoy under.
In Hawaii we ran into a lot of "coral picks," which were manufactured
locally and used to grab onto coral (and cut lose if it got caught--they
were pretty cheap, so they were expendable).
Once you leave the US, particularly in the SoPac most docks and slips seem
to be concrete, which really chaffs your lines. Same thing in the Med.
Most of the mooring attachments and cleats seemed to be two or three feet
from the edge, so a lot of line would lay on the concrete, sawing back and
forth. We carried six 10-ft lengths of chain that we looped around pilings,
mooring bollards, and cleats and closed the loop with anchor shackles. The
chain was hung over the edge and the we'd tie the dock lines to the anchor
shackle.
I'd certainly not put a lot of stock in opinions about which anchor works
best, you're carrying a variety and that's best. Each anchor will work or
not work depending on many variables including, bottom (sand over coral is
worse), depth, scope, length and weight of chain, sea state, fetch, and how
you lay them out. For instance, many typhoon moorings in muddy or sandy
areas are three big Danforths laid out at 120 degree angles to one another
tied together at a mooring ball, the more chain the better. Yet many people
will say Danforths are no good because they'll flip over and sometimes not
reset during a tidal change.
As usual, it's not the tool but how you use it.
(I think I got that from the Playboy Channel--they do a lot of home
improvement stuff there).
Rick
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Rick the Mouseherder - nh2f
Westsail 32 Xapic, Hull #438
Cabo San Juan, Puerto Rico
A small boat and a suitcase full of money
beats a 40 footer tied to the Bank.
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http://www.mouseherder.com
Visit our Westsail 32 Xapic
http://www.mouseherder.com/xapic
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http://www.westsail.org
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