Sailing Around Australia; Anchoring, Anchoring, Bloody Anchoring

3/02/2014 Anchoring, Anchoring, Bloody Anchoring.

The past few days on our Sailing Around Australia Adventures, have been taken up with working out the best place to hide from the strong Easterly Gales that have now set in to Duke of Orleans bay.

The art of anchoring on Easy Tiger is perfecting the dropping of 25 kilos of steel on to sand on the ocean floor. Then having it fall on to the ocean floor the right side up so that it buries into the sand. Then you have to get it to actually bury into the sand and trust that it will stay there while attached to 50 or so meters of chain, from which is dangling the pride and joy that you have just invested your life savings (and then some) into. If you drop it into weed it will roll the weed up into a ball and sit on top of that, not bedded in and not holding. You then expect that this 25 kilos of steel, will stop a 9 tonne boat from being pushed by 40 to 50 kilometres an hour winds either on to rocks or beach or even from ending up in a different post code from where you started.

This is attempted with an anchor witch of a winch that is supposed to wind up the or down the 50metres of chain, the anchor witch is at the front of the boat just a little too far back to be able to see what is happening to the anchor chain as it disappears into the water by the person on the bow. The person controlling the boat is at the back on the port side and cannot see the anchor, the anchor chain or the person on the bow. We use headset transmitters and receivers to solve this problem. The thing is, so do Brian and Maree on Urchin. Sometimes if we are working in the vicinity of Urchin as they are anchoring, I can pick up Maree, not Leanne and Brian gets Leanne. Other times the wind is too strong and noisy for any of us to hear anything at all through the headsets.

From these descriptions I hope I give you the picture that anchoring can be quite a frustrating and tricky activity. The possibility of anchoring lead divorce is off the scale.

So almost as much thought and planning is put into when, where and how we will be anchoring at the end of each journey.

To determine the best place to be so that we can be protected as much as possible from nature’s forces, we look at the weather up to 4 days in advance, to determine the wind strength and direction, as well as the swell height and direction.

We then have a couple of books and internet sites, plus nautical charts that show us the geographical outlines of the surrounding areas. So in an easterly wind we want to be on the west side of headland or a hill, for example.

We received a forecast on Friday, that Monday would see Easterly winds at 20 to 30 knots in our area. Consultation to the books and a look at the chart showed that a bay called Victory Boat Harbour would be well protected from the east.

Closer inspection of Victory Boat harbour on Google earth, showed that it also has a sandy bottom, which is a real treat for us. A meeting between the three boats was held. It was decided that we needed to look at the possibility of moving the 6 or 7 nautical miles around to Victory Boat harbour. Then a question from Maree came, “ What about the swell?” We hadn’t looked at that.

Back to the books, back to google maps, back to the weather forecasts. All this revealed that a large southwesterly swell was forecast. A large southwesterly swell would enter Victory Boat Harbour. The last thing we need when anchored is to have waves breaking on top of the boat. Also on closer inspection, the anchorage at Victory Boat Harbour is quite narrow and we would have to anchor in single file. That would mean the one closest to shore could be smashed by the breaking swell, the one the furthest out would not be protected from the wind and if the one in the middle dragged anchor it would collide with one of the others. No-one could sleep with those possibilities, so the re-anchor in Victory Boat harbour was abandoned. We decided to stay in Duke of Orleans bay.

Nares Island to the south seemed to be quite exposed to the east. Table Island to the North West was where we had anchored the other day in strong winds, to find that the wind came in bullets after “wrapping” around Table Island. Plus to get protection we needed to be dangerously close to the unforgiving rocks. (see previous blogs).

It was back to Nares Island as the best of a bad lot. Once we arrived in the area, we drove around, around and around some more, looking for a suitable patch of sand to drop our anchor into. There are only a dozen or so clear patches of sand around Nares Island. Four of these are taken up by locals, who have put down permanent moorings for their boats. B2 on Zofia had anchored nicely in a big sand patch but that made 2 others inaccessible for us.

It was looking like we were going to have to try our luck by dropping into the thick ribbon weed. Finally we saw a patch of sand about the size of your average coffee table. It was close however and I mean very close to a local’s small catamaran that is swinging about on a permanent mooring. We managed to get the anchor in to the sand OK and have spent the time since watching Easy Tiger move around in a sort or circular dance with the other boat.

On Friday morning after our weather and planning get together we saw B1 and Maree from Urchin wandering around in their dinghy. They were inspecting their anchor it seemed. I went over in my dinghy to see what the fun was about. They explained that they thought their anchor chain was snagged on something and once we got the dinghies arranged into the right position we could see their anchor chain wrapped around a train wheel on the bottom of the ocean. Old train wheels are often used as anchoring points for permanent moorings.

After many attempts to haul their chain clear from the train wheel snag from the dinghy, it was decided that the only way to get it free was for someone to dive on it. So Maree suited up while B2 and I arranged our dinghies over the top of the anchor. Down she went into the weedy, cold depths. After a few bubbles and some super human effort from Maree, the chain was freed.

Next morning I got up to find our anchor buoy off our starboard side hull. Normally this would be straight out from the middle of the boat. OH NO! it seemed like we were snagged. I hatched a plan to un-wrap our chain by driving Easy Tiger around in a circle and letting out or pulling up the chain as we went. The last thing I wanted to do is dive into the weedy, dark, chilly water.

To my great relief on the first pull the boat came right up to the anchor, meaning we weren’t snagged at all.

On Saturday we got a call from people we met in Esperance that also own a Fusion 40. Fud and Faye Mackenzie said that they would like to drive out from Esperance and pay us a visit. How nice this was. They offered to bring supplies (a godsend) and Fud offered to drive us around to Victory boat harbour to have a look should we want. What great people Fusion 40 cat owners are.

When we relayed all our bad anchor stories to Fud on the

Sunday morning they came to visit, he came out with the best piece of advice I’ve heard all trip. We have to learn to relax. Fud has been a skipper in these here parts for many years his advice was very much appreciated.

Its just a matter of trusting that you have successfully dropped of 25 kilos of steel on to sand on the ocean floor. Had it fall on to the ocean floor the right side up so that it buried into the sand. Now trust that it will stay there while attached to 50 or so meters of chain tied on to a 9 tonne boat that is being pushed by 50 kmh winds towards the beach.

What’s to worry about?