First test anchor 0n s\v Elegant'sea! - 2010

July 2011 - At Marina Cortez, San Diego, CA

We did out test anchor on Sunday.

We went to la Playa cove in Shelter Island San Diego and motored over.

We got there around 12:30 PM and thought we saw another Islander Freeport leaving Sheller Island but were not sure.


 We dropped the CQR anchor and let out about 30’ of rode (from the waters edge to anchor). We then drifted back a bit and Debbie who was at the helm backed down on the anchor a little bit and it held. We then went up in power in increments till we were at about ¾ power and the anchor broke free. We cut power and drifted back a bit and I think the anchor re-set. I had Debbie go forward and I retrieved the chain and we then broke the anchor out. I pulled the anchor up to the water’s edge and there was some piece of what looked like aluminum trim on the anchor. It was about 10’ long and a few inches wide bend up into what looked like a U. I pulled the anchor up until it was at the roller where it spun around and the junk fell of the anchor. We motored dup again to “the spot” and dropped the anchor again.
We were wearing our head sets and had them on the low setting. It was great. We were talking to each other like we were standing next to each other. Never raised our voices. I told Debbie of each and every move I was making so she as the helms person would be aware of what was happening at the bow. Debbie made a lanyard for mine with a pelican type hook for my belt. If mine were to come off it could go into the drink.

After we dropped the anchor this time we let the boat drift back and dropped more chain as we went. At times I asked Debbie to put it reverse to speed the process up. Again always communicating with her. It may look silly with the antenna up and all but it sure woks good talk inking to each other real easy.

Interesting boat coming into anchorage.

The SGYC faft up ahead of us.

I did not where a hat and I should have. The head phones were a bit slippery on my thinning hair and would slip off a bit when I would bend over. Plus I got sun burnt.

Setting anchor.

We let out seventy feet this time to the water edge. We have seventy feet marked by blue wire ties.

 When we were marking the chain I thought we would be using seventy feet and that is what we mostly used on the Catalina 30 as we had 30’ c5/16 chain and the rest rope rode. I later found out that (not sure it true or not) you can use 4-1 on all chain rode.

 So we had seventy feet out and we did the back down to about half power. Debbie report the old Perkins was smoking white smoke so we decide to give it a break. The anchor seemed set real good. We marked the chain using a short wire tie for 10’ and a long for 25’ so at 30’ three short at etc. It worked good.

 We used the chain stopper each time we backed down on the anchor and it was different getting used to it. Seems when there is a strain on the chain it flips down, when the chain is slack it runs through fine. I will need to make this work to my advantage.

 We also used the new bridal (snubber) I had made up. It was a bit of fumbling around because this is the first time we ever used one. Got it working fine and tested it some by flipping the chain inside it and out side it. Also let it out till it was under water etc. The eye splicing I was not pleased with. The SS thimble moved inside eth splice. I took it back this morning to Sailing Supply and am having Ed fix it. He said it was loaded on one side. I said nothing but suspected the splicing was not tight when I first picked it up but decide to let it go. I wanted new splices but he said it would not get tighter and he would whip it. We shall see.

In this picture you can see the twisted thimbal.

What I failed to do was look at the chart to see how deep it was at the position we were anchoring at. We were on the outside edge of the La Playa anchorage. Of course I did now and it is 18’ft and it was high tide. So I guess 60’ to 70’ was fine.

 We stayed and had lunch and watched all the goings on and then even went below for a while as the anchor was set real good. Later the wind picked up a bit and the boat did bounced around some to my surprise. I thought with the weight of this boat and the keel and skeg hung rudder that would not happen. Silly me. Guess we will try an anchor sail or kedge sometime in the future.

Wonder why they stern anchored (Catalina 30').

Wonder no more!.

Raising anchor.
We raised anchor and I was washing off the hose just fine when the hand held remote wire got wrapped around the lanyard for my head phones. It caused my head phones to come off and I had to stop everything to get them un-tangled. I think that it will be a backup for operating the windlass. We are about to install the two foot switches and that will be better. Plus we plan on a wireless remote and a chain counter and windlass operation from the helm. I can now see the value in it. Especially at night or in bad weather or setting the anchor more than once or having to move at night. Etc.

Any way got it un-tangled and started rinsing the chain again when I noticed it was not getting real clean. The chain still had some La Plays mud gunk on it. I took off my sunglasses and could see it better. I re-raised the chain ad as I was spraying it off Debbie reported see water coming from some where. At that time I noticed I was getting wet! The garden hose I made up, nine feet, got tore up by the anchor windlass! Now it was just a dribble. It was fairly clean so we upped the anchor on to the roller ad it worked like a charm. I later went below and got the trusty duck tape and patched the hose enough to get the rest of the chain, deck and anchor mostly washed off. The anchor locker scupper did not clog even with the mud that was brought on board and washed into the locker from the bow when hosing down the chain and anchor.

 When the chain was out, a total of about 80’ I went below and re-arranged the chain in the chain locker. I filled all the empty spaces so when it came in this time it world have more room. The first time (only time) we put the chain in the boat we just let it pile up. That was a mistake. Should have flaked it at say 50’ intervals of something like that.

This time when we raised anchor the chain piled up but did not cause a problem with the windlass.

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And there were swimmers! Now water is not yet that warm.

And sailboarders.

All in all it went well.
There were some folks we knew at a raft up from the Silver Gate yacht club that were also in the Catalina Ass. We were members of the Catalina Ass. And I wanted to look good at this process but that failed to happen The hose squirting water into my face and the calamity that it made kinda killed looking cool. Also the head set getting caught up in the remote was comic relief. The process did work though and there just was not the cool factor.

Notice the headsets by the dodger.

We a just kicking it!

As for the hose we will get a coiled hose now so it will not get caught in the windlass.

Just a couple interesting boats.

There was plenty of power from the hose to wash down the deck and boat and all and while it was working it did look cool. When we had the Catalina 30 I used a canvas bucket to dump water on the deck and rode etc. It was a bit of a chore. The hose was such a nice difference!