Hoges in WA wrote:
"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
....

By the way, you keep finding all sorts of place where the holding's not so
good. My wife and I will be going up the east coast of the US in a couple
of years and anywheres you come to grief I'm going to pay particular
attention to.


The holding is just fine. Skip's problem is that he's using a Delta in
soft mud where it is not at its best. I use a Delta all the time in New
England where the bottom is somewhat thicker, but in the soft Chesapeake
mud a Danforth style is needed. A Fortress is good, especially when the
flukes are set at the "mud" angle. However, they can have a problem
resetting if the mud is too thick, or if the flukes have been fouled. A
good approach, then, is to set two anchors off the bow - one Delta or
CQR that will reset and at worst only drag slowly, and one Fortress that
will dig deep in the soft mud. Either of the anchors should hold if
well set; both of them guarantees an anxiety-free night.

I carry a 35# Delta on 50 feet of chain plus a Fortress FX23 with only a
short chain ready on deck. You really don't want big chain on the mud
anchor because that can prevent it from digging in quickly. Also, the
Fortress shouldn't be too big because it will be deployed by hand,
possibly even rowed out. Usually I just power over to Port and drop the
the Fortress, but I've rowed or even walked it to a good spot. Having a
big heavy second anchor is not good incentive to actually using it -
Skip's experience is a case in point.