thought id share my hali anchor set up
anchor is an 11lb claw (shackled at the elbow, zap strap and the end)
105ft of 1/4" chain
600 ft of 1/2" polysteel that passes through a 6" SS anchor ring/ 18" scotchman float
terminated with a hard 10"float and a thimbled spliced eye
the ss ring cant pass the hard float at the end of the rode
i clip a 50ft floating line from the float to the bow-sern line with a caribener.
used this setup several times with great results...
however today things went sideways on me. several things contributed to this near miss
-on the ride out from bamfeild i took a wave over the bow (musta been a rogue wave?), where my floating line was left/stored, washing it overboard (i saw it a minute later but lost sight of it again)
so upon arriving on my spot i had to improvise, i used a 15ft dock line to go from the bow-stern rope to the scotchman.
-secondly, as i payed out rode, i noticed that i was coming up on my desired spot quicker that anticipated, so rather than re setting i just tied a double overhand knot to stop the scotchman ring from slidinging back towards the boat. the 15 ft dock line was tied to this loop.
this worked well for about an hour but as the wind and waves picked up, i decided that i should probably head in soon.
this is when i noticed the scotchman has jumped over the knot, and was bumping up against the bow
this isnt good im thinking as i see the waves starting to get close to coming over the bow....
reel up 4 rods from 230 ft, start the engine and head off at a 45* at 5knots speed
after 30 seconds or so, i notice that the scotchman is happily bouncing along the stern of the boat, tangled in the 15ft bow line and not sliding down the rode as i had expected.
engines go into neutral and i unhappily go back to see a twisted mess wrapped around the ring. i figure i can easily untangle the ropes quickly...
by the time i sort out the ropes i realize that the boat has spun in the wind, stern to the waves. the rode now is paying out of the bucket, over the side of the boat, and around the leg.
panic time!!!
there is still about 50 ft of rope uncoiling itself from my bucket, i figure i have about 50 seconds to fix this or cut loose.
i try reaching over the back of the boat to untangle but cant get slack for long enough to loop it over the leg, i run up to the helm and trim the leg up, grab my 6 ft gaff and head back to the leg, a quick pull on the gaff and the rope comes free from the leg, just as the hard float bangs over the gunwhales... more of a fluke that it came free than anything else...
finally free from the anchor i bob around for a second, then i spin the boat back around, collect the float and retrieve the whole shebang as normal..
looking back there were several things that should have made me think "maybe today isnt a good day to anchor"
wave over the bow,
loss of my normal gear
wind and waves picking up,
fishing by myself,
a bit of an eye opener for me and lessons learned.