Last night it blew 30 knots of wind while we were at anchor up the river Krka.
We knew it was going to blow so we found a spot with good holding mud in 8.5 meters of water and let out 45 meters of chain with our new 25kg “Rocna” anchor. This gives us a scope of just over 5:1 and a good opportunity for a math lesson with the kids. We would have preferred more scope, say 7:1 but in a river channel we are somewhat restricted by the shore and shipping channel.
Gosh its loud on board with all the rigging howling, and the boat bouncing around but we didn’t drag. I left Navionics tracking us to make sure we weren’t moving down river and woke up a few times to check.
Most charter boats come equipped with only a 20kg CQR anchor and 50m of chain. This is acceptable for a boat of our size but does represent a minimum of options and security. As most groups chartering are not daily sailors the trend seems to be to accept the cost of mooring buoys as part of the vacation cost. In order to keep this adventure affordable, we must figure out how to reliably and confidently anchor. I am very glad to have taken my uncle’s advice and bought reputably the best anchor in the world, and a total of 75m of fresh chain. It was expensive but the mooring buoys here are $80 a night and the marina slip almost double that, so the anchor will pay for itself in no time!
