When I bought my boat two summers ago, it had a nice, expensive anchor
hanging on a thick, expensive rope with a plastic-covered expensive
chain on an expensive, stainless steel shackle.

Two weeks later, we were drifting along Buzzards Bay channel, and the
anchor and the chain and the shackle fell off. They just fell off, and
went to the bottom, and I don't know why. I don't even know how: the
rope was OK. Anyways, I just bought a new chip anchor and a new chip
zink-plated chain. It worked for a while.

The following summer, what was the first thing I noticed when I came
back to marina one week after the boat was put back in the water? A
missing anchor. Carefully unbolted, the chain and the rope untouched.
Cheap, I mean: cheap anchor that nobody would buy but me. I couldn't
find a cheaper one, so I bought the same. It worked for a while.

Now, one year later, two weeks ago to be precise, I was again drifting
along Buzzards Bay channel, with a squid on my hook. The engine was off,
and it was off for quite a while. Suddenly, a loud metal noise... clank.
Couldn't figure where it came from, until the time came to move the boat
up the channel. The engine started OK, but there was no hydraulic power,
and the volt meter showed 12 volts. Naturally, the belt was off - but
how! The water pump shaft broke off right at the edge of its bearing...
Clean crack across the shaft, nice and fresh, not a trace of rust...

Well, what do I do? Call the tow guys. Can you anchor right there where
you are, they ask. Just sit there and wait. Sure I can. I drop my
anchor, then I drop back my hook on a line, with a squid on it, and sit,
and wait.

Twenty minutes later a nice yellow boat comes to the rescue. I pull back
my hook on a line, still with the same squid on it. Then I try to pull
back my anchor. It hangs to the bottom and does not come back. I ask the
captain of the nice yellow boat to pool me over the anchor. He does. The
anchor still hangs to the bottom. He revs up his engine. My boat drags
slowly, as something the size of a whale had swallowed my anchor. I
momentarily imagine that it IS a whale, and my hand instinctively cuts
the anchor rope. So, I have no anchor again, and no chain, and now no
anchor rope.

Now, I've replaced the water pump and even bought a new anchor - the
same cheap one, with a 20% discount. And a somewhat thinner rope, and
all the chain stuff.

But now I wander. Can it be that my boat just doesn't like anchors? Or
maybe it wants a new anchor each year? And how to figure it out, and
what the hell should I do about it?