Obviously a well planned and organized blog...

A river of blood, a teacher makes a point, and about that war on people...

The last few days it seems that either my wifi provider, Blogger, or both don't seem to be on the same schedule I'm on... Kinda frustrating! The thing is, I actually had something in mind to write this morning but damn if I can remember what it was after going shopping, doing errands, and suchlike, though I have a suspicion that it might have had something to do with boats (this being Boat Bits and all). Then again, on the other hand, it could just as easily have had something to do with the apocalypse...

Or, just maybe a bit of both! The Girls' Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse has something about boats, pirates, and knots which might be why it's bookmarked on my desktop in the blog notes...

Listening to Les Rita Mitsouko

So it goes...

Simple Monday and a few words on anchoring... Part three

Why you might want to think twice before eating that shrimp cocktail, Bob Perry talks rudder, and, apparently, Hart over at "his vorpal sword" wants the same thing I do for Christmas...

Truth be told, I'm not very good at anchoring in tight places because 99.9% of the time there is simply no need to. On those rare occasions when I do, the operative word is C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y.

As I have mentioned before, if a boat has any kind of decent scope out the chances are that they are pivoting on their chain rather than their anchor and that makes it very difficult to ascertain exactly where someone's anchor happens to be...

For instance, yesterday in the anchorage we were all pointing in very different directions as it was a current/swell/wind nightmare. Later as the swell died down and all the boats were pointing (more or less) into the wind I realized that for a boat just coming in to the anchorage it was the anchorage from hell but did not look like it was. Our anchor was about thirty feet behind us while the boat behind us was sitting dead on top of theirs and for the rest the only thing I could say for sure was nobody's anchor was anywhere near where you'd expect them to be.

Which is why that inviting hole in the midst of a bunch of boats can be anything but inviting.

So, the prudent and simple thing to do is to anchor at the back of the pack... Fact is, we never ever anchor in front of boats and, as many years as we have been doing this, we have never found ourselves in a situation where we could not anchor aft of the pack.

On the other hand, most times when we come into an anchorage where lots of boats are sardined in a section we'll find there is plenty of room because the "anchorage" is often much larger than the area actually being used by boats and we do ourselves a disservice when we assume otherwise simply because boats are bumper to bumper in a particular corner.

Listening to Dirty Heads

So it goes...

Simple Monday and a few words on anchoring... Part two

Lab rats with empathy (I wonder how Wall Street brokers/bankers would fare in this experiment?), this is interesting, and L,G,&M pretty much sum it all up...

So, you've come into an anchorage, found a place as far as humanly possible from others, and you are saying to yourself "How would "So It Goes" drop their anchor?

Well, to that question the operative word would be slow!

For a start, since we don't have a powered windlass (a really bad invention in my point of view), doing things slowly is no bad thing. Our usual method of dropping the hook is to come to a complete stop then let out just enough rode so the anchor hits bottom and as the boat drifts back we let out chain s-l-o-w-l-y... The idea is to avoid piles or clumps of chain on the bottom and let the force of the boat and its windage slowly dig in the anchor and lay out your chain on the bottom...

The main reason I do it this way is simply because after watching many anchors dig in (or not, in a lot of cases) underwater, I've noticed that they tend to dig in and set a lot better when pulled very slowly on the bottom and that the faster an anchor is pulled the harder it is to set.

The other reason I do it slowly is slow equals less sweat and I'm a sorta/kinda lazy guy. I should also point out it is quite pleasant to sit at the bow and let a few feet of chain out every once in awhile while getting a feel for the new anchorage and its denizens.

Now, astute readers may have noticed that I'm not actually using a motor as part of the process and they would be right.

Once I've got about a 4/1 scope out it's time to make a pot of coffee... The anchor will continue to dig in and the time spent making coffee, and then sitting in the cockpit drinking coffee allows the anchor to do its thing and for me to relax...

When the coffee is finished and providing my little coffee and biscuits session has not been interrupted by the scenery changing more than I'm comfortable with, I amble back to the bow and let out a bit more chain so I have about a 6/1 scope.

The next step is to jump overboard and take a look at the anchor... What I expect to find is the anchor chain laid out at a mostly straight line to the anchor which will be oriented the correct direction and will be set... That seems to be the case 95% of the time. The other 5% I may find that the anchor is sitting on something I'd prefer it not to or that the anchor may in fact be not oriented in the proper direction. For those rare occurrences I simply manhandle the anchor by hand because I'm too lazy to do it with the boat/manual windlass.

Back on the boat, if happy with the anchor, I then continue to let out rode till I have out enough that I will sleep secure knowing I'm not going to go walkabout at 3AM... Right now I'm sitting on a 10/1 scope which is certainly more than needful but it does let me sleep without worry and what's the point of having all that chain in the locker if you're not letting it earn its keep?

My mantra for anchoring is "Too much is just enough" and it always seems to work for me.

Next Monday more about anchoring where room is in short supply....

Listening to Dobie Gray (sadly no longer with us)

So it goes...

Simple Monday...Cleats and cleating

Interesting stuff over at Weather Underground, a book on my must read list, and how Groucho would be a big help right about now...

I'm starting out the first of the very basic Monday posts with something a lot of people get wrong... I know this because every time I go to a dinghy dock I notice that 50% or more of the folks tied up don't know how to use a cleat...

Here you go...



That's it... and when I say "That's it", I really mean it! Extra wraps, cute knots and what I can only term as free form rope sculpture is not a needful part of the mix. The cleat will pull out of the dock or your rope will break before the cleat hitch shown will slip so you certainly don't need more wraps...

Since the real strength issue with cleats used correctly is the way the cleat is attached to your boat or dock, I should mention that a wood or nylon cleat is going to be just as strong as one made of stainless steel, bronze, or alloy... For instance, this cleat(nylon) which costs about $7 in a six-inch size that uses 1/4" bolts...

... Will have the same holding power as these cleatsin aluminum ($45) that also use 1/4" bolts to hold them in place...

The strength is in the bolts, not in the cleat. So, if you need something stronger, don't buy a more expensive cleat, buy one that uses bigger bolts...


Listening to Lindsey Buckingham

So it goes...