....
There's a good passage somewhere in the Patrick O'brian books about the mate
standing for twelve hours with his hand on the anchor cable while the ship
is anchored in a deep and dangerous spot.
....

And there's a passage in one of his books about a 30 foot schooner
averaging 12 knots... Patrick O'Brian was a wonderfully gifted writer
and I love his books, but he was no sailor, and it would be very
unwise to use him as a guide to things nautical.

More on topic, in aggregate I've spent years at anchor in this boat,
often in very remote and potentially dangerous spots, and I still find
that anchoring can be pretty tricky at times. I agree that care and
deliberation are good things, but I think any much more specific
advise needs to take into account a fairly precise knowledge of the
situation. I've seen folks from all around the world anchor and there
are lots of techniques out there that seem to work pretty well, but I
don't think there is any one technique that provides universally good
results on all bottoms or in all situations.

-- Tom.