Maybe it's just that we just attract folks with a different view of anchoring methodology but is was hardly a surprise that I had to get up from my watching the tsunami coverage on CNN to go up to my bow in preparation to fend off a boat that had just laid or dragged their anchor into a let's bump "So It Goes" situation...
Anyone who spends most of their time at anchor quickly learn that the actual location of their anchor is seldom in the most obvious place. You don't always pivot on the anchor but some intermediate point in your chain and as that point can shift on an hourly basis due to wind strength and direction... Well, it gets complicated. Mostly at any given moment we know the anchor is "out there" in a forty-five degree cone off the bow. Well, except when it's not...
This is one reason it makes more sense to anchor behind a boat in an anchorage rather than in front or to the side but even so, anchoring behind a boat is no surety that everything is as it should be. A large wind shift may have all the boats pointing in the same direction but it takes time for the various boats to move their chains to the new orientation, and in such a case anchoring behind someone might actually mean you're dropping your anchor right on top of theirs.
Confused yet?
The easiest way to avoid anchor induced mayhem is to simply anchor as far as possible from anyone. I might add this is no bad thing in a social context as you don't have to listen to them bicker in their cockpit (or them hear you), spend a night listening to their genset, or Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" at 3AM...
No matter where I anchor, I make a point of doing a quick dive to make sure my ground tackle is not in danger of fouling a wreck or some-such, crossed someone's chain, and that all is as it should be.
Not currently listening to Captain Beefheart's "Lick my Decals off, Baby"
So it goes...
