Publish Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Location: Cocoa, Florida
Coordinates: 28° 21.560′ N 80° 42.905′ W
This morning is gray, overcast, humid and still. Which is quite a change from yesterday. The wind blew yesterday with a lot of might, blowing sustained winds at over 25 kts (29 mph), and gusts close to 35 kts (40 mph). We are anchored just outside of Cocoa, FL and there were whitecaps with at least two foot seas rolling through the anchorage.
The forecast was for windy conditions, but it was blowing harder than most predicted. We look at several different sources of weather including PassageWeather, NOAA, and Chris Parker. All predictions/models showed the wind out of the ESE to south, clocking to SW by this morning, and west by tonight (Tuesday) into Wednesday, and then finally around to north and NNE Wednesday night into Thursday. We’ve learned over the winter here and in the Bahamas this is a very typical frontal pattern with the winds clocking around.
We decided to move from the southwest side of Cocoa to the northeast side to get better protection from the waves, creating more comfortable living/sleeping conditions. We moved the boat mid-afternoon, and while the wind continued to increase in intensity the ride was much better at our new anchorage. Just as the sun was setting, I noticed something floating in the water next to the boat. Apparently it is the remnants of an old mooring buoy, covered with algae and barnacles. We didn’t see it when we were anchoring, and thank goodness we didn’t drive over it and get it caught in the prop. We decided to pull in a little anchor rode to get in front of this obstacle so it wouldn’t be crashing into the side of our boat with the waves, and potentially scratching the anti-fouling paint.
For those of you following along who are not boaters, anchor rode is the amount of chain (or line) you put out with your anchor. There are very specific ratios you follow based on depth of the water you are anchored in, wind velocity expected, while also taking into account what your boating neighbors in the anchorage have done (everybody needs to be able to comfortably swing around on their anchor without crashing into another boat when the wind shifts). The wind was really howling, so we put out about 80 feet (10:1 ratio) as we are anchored in about 3 feet of water, and the boat hull is an additional 5 feet. So we felt it best to pull in a little rode versus let more out (we also didn’t want this obstacle tangled up in our anchor chain). No problem, with Ayla keeping an eye on the obstacle, me handling the anchor, and Dave handling the boat, we pulled in some rode, reset the snubber and all was well (probably giving us a 7:1 ratio, which is typcial) .
At 2:00 a.m., with the wind howling, the anchor alarm went off, meaning we have moved more than 120 ft from where we were originally. Usually this occurs when you are swinging on your anchor. The wind, in less than 10 minutes, had switched completely from SE to NW, a full 180 degrees (we could tell this by the trace line we have on our plotter). When this occurs so rapidly, and with a lot of wind force, you need to be worried about your anchor pulling out backwards (which happened to us a couple times in the soft sandy bottom of the Bahamas). Usually the anchor resets itself within 30-40 feet; if it doesn’t, then you are “dragging”, which nobody wants to be doing through an anchorage in the wind. Fortunately, where we are anchored is mud, which provides for excellent holding (but super messy when pulling up the anchor). Whether we pulled out, or just augured into the mud we don’t know, but were were nice and stuck. Perfect!
But at 2:00 a.m. I was wondering if we should have pulled in that extra rhode. I can’t tell you what happened with the weather, other than the obvious. The front came through at a blazing pace a full 36 to 48 hours sooner than expected. Everything turned out fine, but it is another reminder that you always need to expect the unexpected.
Speaking of that, there are two beautiful dolphins currently feeding near the bow of our boat as I write this blog. Ahhh, the boating life, a unique mix of adrenaline and peacefulness.
I’m getting a little motion sickness just reading about the storm and wind. I heard about storms in FL today and was just thinking about you all and hoping you are weathering the storm OK. Thanks for keeping us all posted on your journey.
The dolphins do sound wonderful….
Love, Kathy
Thank you for an entertaining and informative website. I’m following your adventures with great interest.
Since you’ve been cruising for some time now with apparent success, I hesitate to comment on your anchoring discussion. However, others who are new to boating may benefit from the following:
You write, “The wind was really howling, so we put out about 80 feet (10:1 ratio) as we are anchored in about 3 feet of water, and the boat hull is an additional 5 feet. . . . [W]e pulled in some rode, reset the snubber and all was well (probably giving us a 7:1 ratio, which is typical.”
When deciding how much anchor rode to pay out to keep your anchor from dragging, it’s important to consider not only the depth of the water from surface to anchor but also the height above water at which the anchor rode is attached to your boat. The total of these two (water depth plus attachment height) is the vertical distance that will determine the ratio you have achieved.
In your example, since your boat draws about 5 feet, I take it that you were actually anchored in about 8 feet of water (and that the “3 feet of water” refers to water under your keel). Your boat has a fairly high bow, so I’m guessing that the anchor rode attaches about 6 feet above the water. The total vertical distance from anchor to attachment point was about 8 + 6 = 14 feet in all. This means that your initial ratio of rode length to total vertical distance was about 80:14, or about 5.7 to 1. When you shortened the rode, the ratio was even less.
Thankfully, the more chain you have connected to your anchor, the better your anchor will hold when your ratio of rode length to total vertical drop is less than ideal. This is because the weight of the chain will tend to keep the rode down and exert a more horizontal force on the anchor than would be the case without chain. An all chain rode maximizes this effect.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Peter
Hi Peter!
Thank you for the note, and for joining us on our journey through our blogs. We love having new friends along.
You are absolutely right about including the height of the boat in your rode calculations, if your snubber attaches up near the fore deck (which is the case on most boats). However, Three@Sea’s snubber attaches at the waterline through the tow eye. We have really enjoyed this feature, as it helps keep the angle of our rode lower. Also, I couldn’t agree with you more about having chain rode. Having such a heavy boat, we definitely sleep better knowing that we have 300 feet of chain at our disposal.
I truly appreciate you taking the time to respond. We are learning many things as we go, and another perspective is always valuable. Thanks again, and glad to have you aboard “virtually”.