Anchoring 101 35◦04'.733 N 088◦11'.899 W

Today was a relatively uneventful day until we anchored. We aim to entertain and today is no exception. We started the day later than usual because there was a thunderstorm going on when we got up. So we had a leisurely coffee while we fashioned a new Bollard rope out of 1 inch rope. Around 8am we started the engines and weighted the anchor. The river was mostly uninhabited and there were no particular points of interest, however we did go through the Pickwick lock and had to wait 2 hours to go through. Right after the lock there were six little inlets we could anchor into. We chose the 6^th one based on width on the chart. It is called Chimney Hollow.

So here comes the lesson on anchoring. There is an art to anchoring. You must first choose a suitable location, then you assess the depth you are in. In order for an anchor to hold it must be at the right angle to dig into the bottom of the lake as opposed to popping out. To maintain that angle you need to set a specific length of rope or chain (called rode). So for an overnight anchoring, the recommended rode is 7:1 meaning 7 times the depth of water you are in. This is especially important if you are in a storm of high wind situation, which we are in tonight. There is a severe thunderstorm warning in the area we are in.   The little inlet we are in is only 100 feet wide, but it is 17 feet deep. That means we need to put out at least 119 feet of chain or rode. Now at 17 feet deep, the pivot point becomes the water line, so we can swing in any direction by about 102 feet. Only problem is, we only have 50 feet on either side of us!

Clearance to the left 

Clearance to the right 

So we pick a spot, I drop the anchor and Jim immediately says lift it up we do not have enough swing room. I try to get the chain rolled back in but we are stuck. I mean stuck! Jim gave the engines some oomph with no luck. The platform the windlass is on (that's the electric motor that rolls up this heavy chain) is actually coming up with the effort. Jim moves the boat from side to side, we try driving over the anchor, still no luck! The windlass cannot bring this anchor up.  Jim starts planning how to cut this 5/8" thick chain to release us. I start thanking god for the answer to our problem. You see if the anchor is that stuck, it means we can shorten the chain because we are going nowhere.  So we are safe here, even though we do not have the usual length of chain out. So we shorten the chain until we have about 60 feet out (17 feet down and 43 feet to swing) and we tie off for the night. For tonight, with the gale force winds, we are snug as a bug in a rug. Sometimes blessings happen in the weirdest way.  Now can you please all say a prayer that we get unstuck tomorrow, because it will really be expensive if we have to cut this chain and loose our anchor! Good Night all.