Choosing an Anchorage Part 2

When it is not calm and you need to find protection for the elements for the night, choosing an anchorage becomes a very important skill! Last time we talked about dropping the hook in the middle of nowhere in calm weather where the only important factor is tide/current and bottom conditions. With stronger conditions, all the other important factors come into play.

When choosing an anchorage in strong weather, all of these points become a priority:

• Length of time anchored
• Protection from wind
• Protection from waves
• Tides and currents
• Bottom composition

Now imagine you are sailing along in a stiff breeze and the sun is starting to set. In the distance, you see huge storm clouds coming right at you and you know you are going to be in for a rough night! Finding protection is crucial for anchoring because you will not get any sleep otherwise!

Length of time anchored: At least the entire night, maybe into the next day because you won't want to pull up the anchor to start sailing during a gale!

Protection from wind: Wind load on the rigging and spars is almost inevitable. The total windage from the hull, spars, and sails will try to pull the anchor out of the bottom and send it dragging along the bottom during the storm. To hide from the wind, you need to stay in the wind shadow of something else. To stay in a wind shadow, you need to know which way the winds will be coming from. If the wind will most likely blow from only one direction, you only need to have one feature causing a wind shadow. If it could be blowing from more than one direction, you need to have more features providing protection from different wind directions.

Wind shadows cast by an object are twice as high as the object and extend out a distance of 20 times the height of the object. That means that if the object is 100 feet high, the wind shadow is going to be 200 feet high and 2000 feet long! This means that hiding behind a small island can actually provide protection from the wind. 

This is one example where we were looking for an anchorage to protect us from a strong wind. It was slack low tide when we arrived, so the current was going to be flowing North overnight (in the same direction as the wind) and slack high tide by morning when we would be leaving. We draw 6.5 feet, dropped anchor in 7 feet of water and slid back into 9 feet of water while leaving out 180 feet of chain. If we were to drag, we would slide into deeper water and I wanted it to set again! The bottom was hard where we dropped the hook and the deeper water was softer. We did drag anchor that night, but it quickly re-set.

The small island provided protection from the wind (we know this to be true because the wind died down as we arrived in the lee). The shallow water around the island also broke up the seas, providing us a less windy and less wavy nights sleep.

While it might seem that we were anchored in the middle, we were actually very protected from the weather, hiding in the lee of the island.

Another important point to remember when anchoring during strong weather is the shock loads on your anchor and the scope of the rode. A 2:1 scope will pull more vertically as compared to a 10:1 scope which pulls more horizontally. When the boat rides up on a wave, the boat pulls back and this puts additional stress on the anchor, trying to pull it out of the sea bed. With a nylon rode, these forces are somewhat dissipated by the stretch of the rope. Chain is much stronger than rope, but offers zero stretch! This is where having extra chain out helps to provide some form of elasticity because of the chains catenary. 

Catenary is the sag that the chain will have as it comes out of the bow roller and leads to the anchor. The weight of the chain will help form catenary and act as the absorbing force. When the boat is pushed back, the force is translated into a lifting motion on the chain. The heavier the chain, the more force it will take to lift the chain, translating into more shock protection for you. 

When we anchored in the lee of the island, we had 180 feet of chain out in 7 feet of water with an effective depth of 11 feet (6 foot bow roller) giving us a scope of 16:1. Overkill, I know! I did this so that I would have enough scope if I dragged into deeper water and to give more catenary in the chain. While the lee of the island provided some protection, I believe the mast was in the wind because the boat was being pushed back quite strongly. With 180 feet of chain, the rode exited the bow nearly vertically. This means that we had plenty of chain that would need to be pulled off the bottom before the anchor would be subjected to a shock load. In addition to this, a nylon snubber was tied to the chain to give even more elasticity and to protect the ground tackle gear on the deck from shock loads.

In this example, we were sailing North when we needed to anchor for the night. The wind was from the South, so anchoring right next to the land provided us protection from the wind and the very short fetch between shore and boat provided us protection from the seas.

This river also experienced very strong currents when the tides would change. The current runs parallel to the shoreline, so I wasn't worried about being beached by the current. Current strengths are depth dependent, so staying in the shallower water was very beneficial. The difference was rather dramatic, 1.4 knot current in the shallows along the waters edge and 5 knots in the deeper water. The additional current adds strain to the anchor which adds even more benefit to hiding in the shallows in the lee of the land, hidden from wind and currents in completely open water right by the bay!

Both of those examples involve short, over night anchoring to escape some short term weather. What if you are hiding from a large storm and don't know which direction the winds will blow from or how long you will need to stay hidden? You will need much more protection!

In this occasion, a series of large thunderstorms were going to be coming through the next day and we needed to seek more protected waters. We didn't know what direction the winds would be coming from, so we searched the chart book for a protected anchorage. What I was looking for was high land encircling the water on all sides to protect us from the wind. 

While looking over the charts I came across St. Mary's River. The topography surrounding the river is composed of high cliffs providing plenty of protection from the wind. Since the wind was blocked, there were no seas to speak of at anchor!

When we arrived in the anchorage, the wind was starting to pick up. We were expecting to work our way up the river into one of the creeks to find protection from the wind, but as soon as we entered the mouth of the river, the winds died and the sails dropped. We ghosted along and dropped the anchor in the sandy bottom and settled in for the night in preparation for the horrible storms that were to come. 

The clouds passed overhead, but the winds and waves never came. This photo was taken during the time when heavy thunderstorms were passing over.

We had a very peaceful nights rest anchored in the protection of the river, where the high lands (even far away in the distance) protected us from wind in all directions. By staying in the mouth of the river, we found it easier to get out of the river and into the wind when it was time to leave. We left the safety of the river with the ebbing tide, once outside of the wind shadow, the winds returned and we were on our way once again.

Choosing an Anchorage Part 1

When the day draws to an end, it's nice to pull into a protected anchorage where you can calmly cook a good meal and get a good nights rest!

Short sailing trips tend to involve sailing from one anchorage to another, this means that every night will be spent in designated and well charted anchorages where the conditions are comfortable (or known to be uncomfortable). On the Chesapeake Bay, anchorages tend to be miles up a river or creek. When traveling only by sail, these anchorages can take a good part of the day to reach! This is fine if your destination is the next anchorage, but if you are sailing to a far away destination, these journeys to the anchorages are a waste of time!

On longer sailing trips, traveling 2 hours up a river to reach an anchorage means 4 hours of sailing are lost each day (2 hours to leave the anchorage in the morning, 2 hours to enter the new anchorage in the evening). Over 1 week, this would be 28 hours of sailing time spent entering or exiting an anchorage. As you can see, your progression would be greatly slowed! 

If you can sail all day and begin searching for an anchorage around sunset and reach it rapidly, almost no time is lost while traveling towards your destination. This is where learning how to pick an anchorage becomes an important skill.

When choosing an anchorage, there are several points to consider:

• Length of time anchored
• Protection from wind
• Protection from waves
• Tides and currents
• Bottom composition

Length of time anchored plays into how protected you need to be. You don't have to be worried about changing weather conditions if you are anchoring for lunch as much as you do if you are going to anchor for the weekend. The longer you will be on the hook, the more protection you will need. 

If you are anchoring for the night, you will only be on the hook for 7 to 10 hours and will need to find a protected anchorage so you can sleep soundly for the night, waking up recharged!

Protection from the wind is important because wind load will cause strain on your anchor. If your boat is in the face of a lot of wind, you run the risk of the anchor dragging. By staying out of the wind, your anchor is less loaded and will be less likely to drag throughout the night.

Protection from waves is very important for quality of sleep. I don't get sea sick, but I worry that the anchor will drag if we are bouncing around in high seas instead of sleeping soundly. Maddie does get sea sick, and spends the whole night throwing up! For these reasons, protection from the waves is very important!

Tides and currents also come into play when anchoring overnight. It is important to check the tide tables to see if you can expect a tide reversal during the night. Some anchors do better than others with reversals while others run the risk of not resetting. Currents are also important to consider. If you anchor with wind and tidal current in the same direction, this means that after a tide reversal the wind will be opposing the tidal current and the waves will kick up with the boat anchored in a confused set of waters.

Bottom composition is also important. Different anchors work best with different bottoms and matching the anchor you use to the bottom you are anchoring in is very important. The bottom conditions tend to be marked on charts as well. This means that if your favorite anchor is best in mud,  choose a section that is charted as mud to anchor in and avoid hard pack or rock bottoms! If you are unsure of the bottom condition, you can place some bees wax in a sounder, drop it to the bottom (this also tells you the depth) and then pull the sounder back up. A sample of the bottom will stick to the wax and let you know exactly what bottom substrate you are working with.

Now that we have looked at all of these factors individually, it is time to put all of this knowledge together to select your anchorage while sailing along.

Imagine you are sailing along and the day is drawing to an end, it's time to find an anchorage and get there before the sun goes down. If it is a calm night and the weather is going to stay calm, anywhere is fine!

Just because it's calm now and looks like it is going to stay calm, doesn't mean that it will stay calm. Most nights when we anchored in the middle of the bay, we would cook dinner, relax, and go to sleep, all in very calm and still water; it's wonderful! 

Some nights though, late in the evening, the wind and seas would pick up. We have found ourselves anchored out in the middle of the bay with no protection, feeling everything since we were fully exposed.

If you decide to drop the hook in the middle of nowhere, simply check your charts and find someplace with shallower water and a good bottom. Bottom condition is very important when anchoring on these underwater hills because if your anchor drags, it will probably not re-engage the bottom. As you drift, your anchor falls off the top of the hill and into deeper water which relates to reduced scope. 

Say you are sailing by this area and the sun is getting low to the horizon on a calm day. When you look at the chart, you can see various bottom conditions. You have deep water with broken shells, shallower water with hard pack bottom and another shallow area with a sticky bottom. The sticky bottom is on the edge of the depth contour line. When you drop the hook, let out enough rode so that if you do drag over the contour line and into deeper water, you will still have enough scope to re-set. If you drop the hook in 12 feet of water (with a 6 foot high bow roller), your effective depth is 18 feet. If you let out 90 feet of chain, you will have 5:1 scope which is adequate. If you drag into the 16 feet depth, your effective depth becomes 22 feet and the scope is reduced to 4:1. If you were dragging in the 5:1, you will probably continue to drag with the 4:1 scope into the 21 feet deep water and your effective depth is 27 feet with 3.3:1 scope. At this point, your going to continue drifting as your anchor drags all night long! To avoid this, simply let out more rode so that if you do drag into deeper water, you will still have enough scope to re-set once you get there.

When you anchor in 12 feet of water with a sticky bottom for the night, let out 154 feet of chain. This will give you 8.5:1 scope which is overkill, but if you drag into the deeper section, you will still have a 7:1 scope. You won't drag anchor with 8.5:1 scope, but if you do, your anchor will most likely reset quickly in the deeper water.

To decide how much rode to let out, simply look at the deeper sections that you could drag into and let out the appropriate amount of rode for that depth. This will give you the depth to calculate your scope from. In the example above, the deeper sections had an effective depth of 27 feet. 27 x 7 (from a 7:1 scope) gives you 154. This is the length of chain you need to let out, even though you are in much shallower water at the moment.

Next we will discuss anchoring in "not calm" conditions when anchoring out in the middle is not an option but sailing into a distant "well known" anchorage is not feasible.

Cleaning the Bilge

We came home from dinner one day and Maddie told me: "It's time to clean the bilge".

We don't have any issues with bay water leaking into the bilge, but we do have issues with rain water! It gets in through different places and works its way into the bilge where it begins to "grow". What starts off as innocent rain water mixes with Morty's fur and general dust that accumulates in the bilge. After a few months or so, it begins to develop an odor which Maddie's sensitive nose can detect. When the Admiral gives the order, I do as commanded!

Cleaning the bilge isn't as difficult as it may seem. Yes it's deep and I can hardly reach the bottom of it; but since I keep it pretty clean, it's never that daunting of a task.

A variety of bilge cleaners exist, some use caustic and harsh chemicals, others hardly do anything at all. I strongly caution you away from using the harsh and caustic chemicals, because these cleaners will be dumped into the water shortly. I use Simple Greene because it works really well and is biodegradable. 

If your bilge has never been cleaned, you will have to get in there and scrub the crud off the walls and floor of the bilge. If you have a deep bilge (common in full keep boats), you will need a scraper mounted on a long stick. My bilge is around 4 feet deep and is a nightmare to reach the bottom (hence my knowledge of the scraper stick).

If your bilge is very dirty, I highly recommend cleaning it. This is not because of smells, or aesthetics, or bragging rights, but because of safety. If you have a lot of crud and gunk in your bilge and you spring a leak, all of that stuff can clog the strum box and stop your bilge pump from pumping. If left unchecked, your boat could sink!

After the initial cleansing of the bilge, subsequent cleanings are pretty easy to carry out. I simply pour some simple green into the bilge and drop a hose down into the bilge. I let the hose run for a while to suds the bilge up a bit and bring the water level higher than the strum box.

With the hose still running, I go outside to the bilge pump lever and begin pumping.

I pump the lever until I stop seeing suds bubbles form on the surface of the water around the boat. Simple green will have some bubbles, but they pop rather quickly and disappear. When I can't see bubbles anymore, I go inside to see how the bilge looks.

If the water in the bilge is completely clear, I pull the hose up and shut it off. Then I return to the pump lever and finish pumping out the bilge. As the strum box reaches the bilge waters surface, it will begin to gurgle. This is a good time to stop pumping as no more water can be drawn out of the bilge.

I then take a shop vac with a long hose and suck out the rest of the bilge water. While you have the shop vac in the bilge, it's a good idea to vacuum the strum box intake, incase any debris is laying on it. Now that the bilge is completely clean and dry, the smell that was just beginning has now vanished.

Butt Blocks

The scarf joint for the ridge beam has dried in the clamps for a full week, now it is time to prepare the butt blocks.

The butt blocks flank the sides of the joint and can hold both beams together without the scarf. Having the scarf and butt blocks is overkill and mental insurance for my peace of mind. If I overbuild that important structural member, I won't have to worry about it being strong enough for the task!

The butt blocks extend 2 feet past the scarf on each side of the joint to further support the whole structure. The boards are through bolted to apply pressure and keep everything close and tight.

The problem with the assembly is I am working alone and these boards are very heavy.

I decided to do each board individually and then assemble everything once. I started by measuring and drilling the holes on the scarfed board.

Then I set the first butt block under the scarfed board and drilled again. After each hole, I would put a bolt through it to hold it all in place and avoid the boards from squirming around. The bolts helped keep all the holes aligned for the further steps.

After this, I flipped the boards over onto the other butt block and drilled down through the bolt holes. I would pull the bolt, drill the hole all the way through, and then re-seat the bolt. This was a very slow and tedious process, but it resulted in a perfect fit where all the bolts lined up.

After all the holes were all drilled, I planed and sanded the faying surfaces of the boards and prepared them for the final glue-up.

I took this moment to sand all the other surfaces as well and to radius the corners of the butt blocks.

I then positioned the king beam in a vertical position and set the butt blocks next to it with the faying surfaces properly oriented. This was my last time to check that everything was in order, as the next step involved permanent glue!

I painted Titebond III wood glue onto the faying surfaces of the butt block and king beam with a paint brush. I set the glue-up upside down so that any drips will drip out onto the top of the beam and not be visible from inside the house. 

I positioned the first butt block with the through bolts and mated it closely to the king beam. Then I painted glue on the second butt block and set it onto the bolts. With the bolts going all the way through the joint, I began tightening them down. I decided not to use washers since the bolts were not long enough to run all the way through the joint and fit the washers. Without the washers in place, they had just enough thread exposed to engage the nuts.

Tightening the bolts all the way only sank the heads and nuts into the wood a small amount. The glue and scarf joint will be plenty strong without washered bolts in place. 

On a final note, the grain orientation is important when setting up a joint like this. The grain orientation in the scarf joint should be identical, that way any warping will not stress the joint. 

The ideal grain orientation for any and all of these boards is called "Quarter sawn" where the grain runs diagonally across the end grain. The problem is this kind of wood is exceedingly expensive in these sizes. The next best grain is called flat sawn or rift sawn. These have grain running along the width of the end grain. These boards are easy to spot in a pile because the end grain looks like rainbows. The worst grain to use would be vertical grain because the fasteners would cause the board to split along the grain.

The reason Quarter sawn is ideal is because it will not warp. Vertical grain will warp very minimally, but the tendency to split makes it undesirable for such a beam.

Flat or Rift sawn boards tend to warp in all sorts of directions. They can twist, cup and bow! This may sound like the worst grain pattern to use for such a beam, but understanding what they are going to do helps you eliminate its ability to warp. 

When you look at the end grain, keep in mind that the rings want to lay flat. This means that those rainbows will become flat lines and the board will cup on the side that the rainbow apexes. When you set your butt blocks on the beam, if you set them so that they arc in a ring around the beam, they will end up pulling off the beam and opening up the seams.  

By setting the butt blocks like I have here, the apex of the rainbow faces the beam. As they warp, the edges of the beams will be smashed into the beam which will cause them to further tighten the seam while the middle of the board will pull off of the beam. The through bolts will counteract this action and keep the board smack up against the beam. The warping process will actually make the butt block junction even stronger since both sides are pushing in symmetrically.

As far as twisting goes, care must be taken to keep the beam dry until it can be coated in oil or varnish and be sure to keep it resting on a flat surface at all times. Once in place in the structure, the beam will be fastened to the walls and trusses, unable to twist or cup. 

Understanding how the boards will try to warp can actually help you create the structure that you desire. Working with what the wood wants to do can make the whole building process go so much easier.

Keys

The inevitable end of all your possessions while living aboard is "falling into the water". At some point, everything that you cherish: tools, keys, phone, ect. will fall into the water and be lost forever. The trick is to postpone this inevitable end! 

Keeping your keys on a lanyard around your neck is a very secure way to make sure you remain in possession them. It might not look stylish, but this is the safest way too keep ahold of them. 

It doesn't take long for a new liveaboard in the marina to start carrying they keys on a lanyard around their neck. Maddie started almost immediately, despite her resistance based on fashion reasons.  

I use the BoatUS lanyard that came with my insurance policy and Maddie uses a lanyard from college. These simple lanyards have kept our keys attached to us for years, and hopefully the day they fall into the water never comes!