Umm... well, the first person in the anchorage typically decides the number
of anchors. Of course, there are exceptions.

Sounds like some good reasons for two.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"JimC" wrote in message
...


Capt. JG wrote:

If the holding is good and you're only going to be there a short time,
and it's during the day, you don't need an anchor light, and you don't
need to keep a watch. Why two anchors? Is the bottom that lousy or the
wind/current shifting that much? How did you deploy?


I may want to spend the night on occasion. The reasons for two anchors are
as follows:

A. There may be traffic in and out, and I want to restrict the "swing" so
I stay in a relatively small area. I may have to change to one anchor if
other boats are on a single anchor and I have to swing with the crowd, but
I don't think that will be the case.

B. Just north of the island is the Houston-Galveston ship channel, with
lots of traffic of all kinds. Two anchors, even if both are on the bow,
provide a little better security and backup, particularly if there is a
change in tide direction that might lead to dragging one of the anchors.
In particular, I would hate to wake up in the middle of the night and find
that, due to a change in tidal currents, a single anchor (originally set
hard with 7:1 scope) was dragging and I was floating across the Houston
ship channel.

Jim