SPOTLIGHT: Anchoring Blues

Once in a great while, we find ourselves trying to anchor under the most challenging of circumstances. Of all the places where I have anchored around the world, my worst anchoring nightmare was not too long ago at Little Fisherman’s Cove, Catalina Island. For those of you who have anchored in that tranquil, little corner of the larger Isthmus Cove, Little Fisherman’s faces a swell from the west but also gets a strong breeze from the isthmus lying to the south. So when our boats naturally nose into the wind, the swell has our boats rocking crazily, dumping plates of food from the dinette table onto the cabin sole and fraying our nerves like exposed hot wires. The solution for most of us, of course, is to deploy a stern anchor towards the beach, forcing the bow into the swell, calming the vessel’s movement and allowing us to relax. Anchoring bow to the swell with a cross-wind greatly reduces or totally stops the pendulum, offering crew a quieter, more peaceful stay at anchor. Anchoring properly in a cross-wind, however, requires practice and, just as important, agreement among all skippers in the limited space to follow the same anchoring practice. On this particular occasion,...