There is nothing like the confidence of seeing an anchor well dug in.
There is nothing more disturbing than finding nothing much is holding you in place
We’re we can we dive on our anchor, even if we think its set well and is trust worthy. I guess if you can be certain, be certain .
Recent examples of where this has paid off are
- Stern-too with plenty of pressure holding us forward, stern lines taught and the boat not moving backward at all, despite the 20kt gusts…. We dove on the anchor to find it sitting sideways on the top of the grass, god knows what was holding us there, but not safe for that night.
- Another is anchoring in a bay, said to be all sand and a few rocks. The water was so clear we could see rocks and sand. Dropped the anchor and it bounced a little then brought us to a solid halt. Dove on the anchor to find it just sitting on top of the “Sand”. Perplexed I dove right down and tried to dig my finger into the “sand” that the anchor was sitting on top of, it was solid sandy like ROCK!!! The bottom was entirely rock, no sand I could find.
- I dove on 4 of my neighbours anchors (there were 30 boats in the harbour), none had chain or anchor that was actually set on anything. Very light winds that night so the chain alone was holding us and the next morning we found the chain wrapped around a large rock that took a little “Manoeuvring” to unwind, but we weren’t staying there as the wind built during the day!!!! It would have been boat billiards.