Anchoring quote of the day:

Quote of the day:

"If your anchor is not holding as well as you might like, consider your options. The insurance of having a good modern anchor may just let you sleep peacefully through the night secure in your chosen anchorage."

https://www.whiteseahorse.ie/publishing/HappyHooking.html

Anchoring Made Easy

“Anchoring Made Easy” was to have been the title of our anchoring book, had the publisher with whom we wanted to work had his way. Instead we named it “Happy Hooking – the Art of Anchoring”, as hooking your boat to the bottom in a lovely spot should always be fun and easy. Sadly, there are still some people out there who are clearly not having fun when they try to set their hook. We suppose they have not read the book – and their boat may not necessarily always stay put either. As our cruising takes us ever further afield, and we check the cruising guide for the anchorage in the harbor we would like to visit next, we often see statements like “anchorage marked on the chart has poor holding”. I write this as we are (very securely) anchored just below a picturesque castle in a beautiful bay on the west coast of Ireland. Once again the guide notes that this spot has poor holding. It’s at this point that it occurs to us that perhaps it was not the bottom that provided questionable holding but rather the anchor being used when the observation was made that was at fault.

Turkish Bling or the Real Thing?

Rocna and Ultra side by side As anchoring is perhaps the single most important part of boating, any mention of anchoring or gear preferences in the company of sailors is always sure to stir up a storm of commentary from all sides – even from people who may only rarely leave the dock. So when word of Quickline’s introduction of the Turkish manufactured Ultra Anchor to the US marketplace trickled into our consciousness, we just had to take a closer look. Long proponents of what we term as modern generation scoop type anchors, we have several older pieces of hardware decorating our front lawn. These include a huge Luke (fisherman-type), a smaller and very elegant collapsible fisherman, a massive CQR and a well-used Delta (maybe we should start a museum of anchoring). Had we any of the other types of anchors designed to plow, claw or drag through the bottom, these too would have become ornaments. As an old saying goes, “The plow was a great invention until some eejit made an anchor out of it.”

Cruising Destinations

Sailing at last! Photo by Chris Gill of Windcheck.

Picking a destination is as easy as it is complex. The first challenge is to answer the question, "Dock, mooring, or anchorage?" The second issue is to master the concept of "Gunkholing." And then there is offshore cruising, ocean passages, and foreign ports...

Gunkholing

"All gunkholes are anchorages, but not all anchorages are gunkholes. There is a subjective quality in the term "gunkhole" that is not present in any anchorage... A gunkhole is that ideal anchorage of which you dream, protected from stronger winds, surrounded by towering trees with seabirds swooping down to catch the jumping bait fish, and with a good bottom for holding the anchor for as long as you care to stay."

Adapted from: Tom Lenfestey, "A Gunkholer's Cruising Guide to Florida's West Coast"

Part of the allure of gunkholes is keeping them a secret to protect their allure. There aren't quite as many gunkholes on LIS as we would like, but we'll tell you about some of our favorite spots without revealing their secrets.

We'll also provide information about the many destinations that are not gunkholes, but rather cruising destinations that offer marinas, anchorages, moorings and other amenities, adding to the collection as time permits. Suggestions, corrections, additions and editorial contributions are welcome.

Just click on a destination on the following pages to view cruising information. If nothing comes up, that means we are working on it and would appreciate your input.

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Your Right to Anchor in Florida Is Once Again in Jeopardy

As the Florida Legislative Session begins, we are once again expecting a slew of bills to be filed that call for banning overnight anchoring in specific areas in Florida.  This has been an on-going issue for several years, and the Seven Seas Cruising Association, as part of a coalition formed to protect Boaters’ Rights, has been successful in keeping most anchorages open for our members.  Please read on for the history of this issue, the expectations for the upcoming legislative session.

History:

For several years, anchorages have been under attack in Florida, sometimes by waterfront home owners who prefer not to have boats anchored in the waterways outside their homes. More often, however, responsible boaters are caught up in the “derelict vessels” issue, which is a serious problem in Florida.   By working with their state legislative delegations to pass restrictions on anchoring in their waterways, municipalities think they’ll have an easier time ridding their area of abandoned boats and/or those anchored with no intention (nor ability, in many cases) of ever moving.

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