We have been safely anchored for 3 nights and had periods of 15 to 20 knots in the aftetnoons. We went in with our dinghy just before 12AM and went shopping. When we returned almost 2 hours later our boat was adrift. The wind was 10 to 15 knots and was pushing our boat and two others into the bay.
A young guy on a Belgian sailboat that was in the drift path, had just managed to get our boat alongside as we arrived. We soon got control, recovered our anchor and motored back to the anchorage. We sooner learned that a large AMEL sailboat had started to drift as their anchor had been caught on a fishing-pot when they anchored the day before.
Checking the AIS history, it looked like the boat had drifted over our chain and most probably disturbed chain/anchor enough to set our boat adrift. But all in all, no damage. The AMEL and a french catamaran drifted almost accross the bay before they were recovered. So even if you own boat initially is safe, you are totally dependent that other boats have been properly anchored.
4 comments:
Geir, glad it turned out well, could have been a very scary and costly event, hi.
But, do you have any form of anchor alarm which could have notified you when on shore, or away from the boat? Thinking of a GPS-related alarm via your cellphone or similar, which triggers when your position changes outside set parameters?
Thanks for your views Hans. I found an APP that sends a warning by email or a message using Telegram APP. Will do some tests. But in this case things happened within 10-15 minutes. We were just lucky to already be on our way back to the boat.
name on app ? does it work, ? We use ipad onbord with anchor watch, but if we are away. and the boat starts to drift off. what to use then ?
Found an app called Anchor Pro. You must leave the phone with app running onboard/online and the alarm is sent to another phone via email or as a message on the Telegram app. But I don't see any value. If you get an alarm, how much time do you have to get back on the boat to get control ? I bet that will soon put a limit to how far you dare go away from the boat. Making doubble sure your holding is good before you go ashore is the best way of doing it.
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