How Well Do You Sleep at Anchor?

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 12:31 pm

We've anchored overnight probably 20-30 times since purchasing our 268 and although I love sleeping out under the stars I'm not sure if I'll ever sleep well through the night. My wife on the other hand sleeps through the night no problem.

My question is who anchors out and how well do you sleep? If you sleep good, have you always slept good at anchor or did it take time?

Decision · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 12:48 pm

For me, if I feel we have anchored in a safe area, meaning as best as possible be out of the way of some ding dong running into your boat in the middle of the night my next thought turns to anchor holding power.

I know one oversized anchor and good ground tackle should be fine, but I find it more relaxing (for me) to deploy two anchors off the bow. Sure it takes a little more time setting anchors up and retrieving them but it gives me peace of mind to know I have two good anchors down. I do feel somewhat concerned, that with only one anchor out I think about a defective shackle, or the anchor rode rubbing on something sharp underwater and if that one anchors fails for whatever reason where do I end up?

So if I feel I'm anchored in a safe spot, have good anchor holding, I can sleep about as well at anchor as the dock.

At anchor though, I will always at least a couple times during a night do a quick check to make sure our anchors and position seem right. Something I don't do at dock.

Mike.

Jdpber · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 12:58 pm

I have been sleeping on boats since i was a baby. Oh man the lap lap lap of the water against the hull will put me right to sleep.. I cannot think of a time that i couldn't sleep... have you tried a stiff drink before hitting the hay

TFD2001 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 1:28 pm

Yep, sleep out on the hook as much as possible, and never worry about much. Have even slept through some good thunderstorms with good winds, and maybe go up once just to check and make sure all is holding, but once confidant it will hold, nighty night for me..

jgreve75 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 1:42 pm

We love to anchor out. I'm up and down most of the night, but since that's not any different from at home or in the slip, I would say that I sleep just as well anchored out as anywhere. I do check our position while I'm up, run the gen if it's getting warm in the cabin and keep an ear out for anything unusual, but I can't honestly say that I sleep lightly out of worry. My afternoon naps on the hook and elsewhere are an entirely different proposition... You could drop a bomb on me and I would never know it. I've also noticed that the white noise from the ac return duct in the aft tends to drown out everything, which is not a bad thing when you have bass boats pulling out of the marina at 5am all weekend long while you are trying to sleep in.

On the subject of anchor dragging, I have been trying out an app I found last fall, called Drag Queen. It marks your GPS position when you set anchor and if your swing goes outside of a user specified radius, an alarm goes off. I wouldn't trust my life to it, but it is a pretty good tool to have.

Backdraft · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 1:44 pm

I can say that thus far, I haven't had a good night of rest on the hook. Working on making the 268 more comfy with some 3inch memory foam, as well as some decent 12v fans. Hopefully that will help. Of course I still feel anxious wondering if the anchor is holding, will other boats see us, etc... hopefully time and trust in the boat's systems will help with that...

rpengr · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 2:00 pm

One of the best nights sleep I ever had was on a 36' sailboat underway in open ocean, about 4' seas, and heeling about 20degrees. Wedged into the low side of the bunk, and the the sounds of the water...slept like a baby. Trip was from near Washington DC, up to Block Island. 40 hour sail, but someone was always on watch, so no worries to keep you awake.

ric · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 2:09 pm

I've been sleeping on boats for years, love it. Have a drink it will help.

I also exercise my right to "open carry" on my boat when we anchor out

afw200 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 2:53 pm

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5843&hilit=sleeping+on+the+hook

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 3:36 pm

afw200 wrote:

http://www.smwebhead.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5843&hilit=sleeping+on+the+hook

Thanks for the link afw200! It was interesting to see all the people to post back in 2010 who rarely if ever post here anymore. I feel like it's good to revisit topics especially with all the new faces around here since 2010.

Reading these replies I'm starting to wonder if it's more about location than anything else for me. I think back to the few good nights of sleep I've had on the hook and all of them were on an inland lake or a small protected cove somewhere. Unfortunately here on the south end of Lake Michigan if the wind switches north it's a mad dash back to the marina....sometimes in the middle of the night

The payoff is if it all goes well it's hard to beat watching the sun rise over Lake Michigan with a fresh brewed cup of coffee in your hand!

I've always wondered how other people handled it, so I appreciate these replies!

Jdpber · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 3:47 pm

Check your gps. I know Grandads 65' has an anchor warning you can set. Aka I'd boat moves more than regular swing it sounds when anchor pulls.

JeffLW · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 6:35 pm

So far I've only done it one time last summer but we were rafted up with some friends. A few drinks and I slept like a rock through the night, but when my bladder woke me up at around 6am, first thing I did was pop my head out to see if we had moved at all.

Going to try it this year by ourselves and see what happens.

Plan to set two bow anchors just in case.
Just have to read up on how to set the anchor alarm on the Garmin.

john55c · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 9:55 pm

http://www.saltyjohn.com/resources/haphook.pdf I ran across this article, and it is an interesting and humorous read about anchoring. Look forward to spending some overnights this summer. I think our first few overnights will be on moorings. Peace of mind and not having to worry about anchor holding, etc.

JAK · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2013 10:13 pm

Ben I understand your concern especially after the troubles you and Dana had at Bear Drop. That can shake your confidence. But it sounds like you have better ground tackle and hopefully at least a boat length of chain. We've anchored overnight hundreds of times over the years. Only slid once enough to touch bottom which is partially luck, good tackle, knowledge of the bottom characteristics and listening to wind direction forecasts. Also good to have a "what if" plan if the wind direction/strength is different than expected.

Others mentioned 2 bow anchors. Never...if one slips it can fowl the other. Stern anchor...not unless I'm in a protected anchorage and can't swing because of others there before me. The Bruce (claw) anchor you purchased is designed to reset itself in a wind direction change as opposed to the fluke type. If using a stern anchor you may end up beam side to wind/waves during a switch of wind direction at night. Besides, if you do get into trouble I wouldn't want extra bow/stern anchors to clear before escaping.

Others also mentioned the sound of water lapping at the hull. I love it because it means your anchor is holding. When the noise stops it means either it's dead calm or your drifting.

Really its a matter of confidence. Sure, I've spent my share of nights at the wheel...even in forward gear holding strain off the anchor during the worst of it. But that is so rare it's worth having the sunsets and sunrises to yourself. Besides, I'd rather drift ashore and walk to my insurance agent than sink and have to swim in!

I see from your blog you are coming to Door County this year. If looking for good anchorage spots and or marina's, give a holler.

Later, Jeff

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Tue May 07, 2013 7:56 am

Jeff,
Thank you very much for the excellent reply! After the incident in Bear Drop I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out what went wrong. After taking some anchoring webinars through the Great Lakes Cruising Club and reading some books from blue water cruisers I realized that I made so many mistakes it was almost a forgone conclusion that we were going to drag anchor that night.

I had 2 anchors out and one did foul the other, and the time spent pulling them both in was time lost that could have been spent repositioning the boat instead. I was tied to shore which put us completely broadside to the wind when it switched. Most importantly I did not properly set and test the hold of my anchor, while ignoring a note in the harbor report stated spots of poor holding in our general area. Lesson's learned the hard way for sure!

I've now upgraded my entire anchoring system, but more importantly I feel I've upgraded my skill set. Hopefully over time my anxiety levels will drop and I can get a full night sleep. We won't give up on anchoring out either way since it is worth it for the solitude and scenery. We will be visiting the Door in a couple months and would love any advice you can give on anchorages! I will send you a PM.

We feel like we need to redeem ourselves and give the North Channel another try so we are also revisiting the North Channel later in the summer.

Thanks again,
Ben

www.iFourWinns.com

How Well Do You Sleep at Anchor?

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