My "failure to anchor" incident happened in Miami where we were actually inside the barrier islands so we were ultimately safe.
However, I went to my union's school for some upgrading classes and the fellow next to me had a terrifying story. During his apprentice period (6 months) he was assigned to a research vessel in either the USVI or Key West, I can't recall which. The day after he arrived it was his turn to take a Zodiac (grey) out two miles and get a water sample. The bosun had just varnished the boat's oars so they weren't in the boat. All he had was the boat, its outboard, its painter, the gas tank and the sample jar. The engine stalled when he got the sample and would not start. The wind blew him off shore. The second night out the boat capsized. He tied himself on with the painter and scraped the bottom of the metal gas tank with its cap to make it a bit shiny. At one point a search plane flew over him so low that he ducked. They gave up on him after three days because it was thought that no one could survive without any water that long. On the fifth day a coastal freighter spotted him and picked him up. He spent several weeks in a hospital and eventually went back to work. I had read about his ordeal in Yachting magazine before I met him. In my dinghy I have a GPS, a VHF and a jar of AA batteries (among lots of other stuff ). Having the deluxe model with the bow locker is a big help. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Gloucester MA > [Original Message] > From: Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 8/24/2010 3:09:34 PM > Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Anchors for Inflatable's? > > On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 02:40:00PM -0400, [email protected] wrote: > > > > I use a very small stainless Bruce, I think is ten pounds or less. I can > > check tomorrow for you. I put about eight feet of 1/4" ss chain on it and > > about a hundred feet (we had a problem once of not enough line to reach the > > bottom after an engine failure - you won't always want to anchor off a > > beach) of 3/8" polypro line on it. Probably should use nylon. > > Norm brings up a good point. I keep enough rode (plus the parachute > cord) in the bow locker so I can hook onto the bottom to keep from > drifting away if the engine dies - not just enough to anchor by the > beach. Some places, a dead engine means that you might get washed out > to sea, or into a busy shipping lane at night. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
