The local anchoring recommendation in the Chilean canals is to drop anchor in as small a cove as possible, then back the boat as close to shore as possible, before tying the boat to as many trees as possible. We’ve done this now a few times, and after years of making sure that we don’t get too close to the shoreline when anchoring, we’re slowly working up the confidence to intentionally park the boat close to the rocks on the edge of the coves.
The theoretical approach is simple enough – just drop the anchor with enough room behind you so that when you let out the appropriate length of chain for the water depth, the stern of the boat is close to shore (but not too close). At that point it’s possible to paddle a few lines ashore in the dinghy, tie the ends around sturdy trees or big rocks, and then tighten the lines so that the boat is more or less locked in place.
We’ve found the practice, however, to be a bit more challenging. The amount of chain that needs to be deployed changes with the depth of the water, and of course the depth of the water doesn’t stay constant as we back towards shore. And any wind blows the boat away from the middle of the anchorage, usually directly towards whichever rocks happen to be most threatening.
At Caleta Morgane on Isla Farquar, we put together a picture-perfect exhibition of exactly what should be avoided. The caleta is small, with less than 100’ (30m) on either side of the boat, and deep enough that we needed to let out more than 100’ of chain. So if the boat were blown to one side or the other, it would be easy to swing into the rocks.
Angie hopped in the dinghy to take the first line ashore, while Mike stayed aboard Madrone to drop the anchor, back into the caleta, and pick up the line after Angie secured one end to a tree and paddled back out. The problems started as Mike dropped the anchor and started to pay out chain – as he backed up, he misread the marking on the chain and deployed 60’ instead of the planned 160’. He then grabbed the shoreline that Angie had paddled back to the boat and tightened it up to hold the boat in place and away from the nearby rocks.
With not enough chain deployed, the anchor couldn’t dig into the bottom. The bow of the boat, instead of being held in place, was being blown towards the rocks. Angie grabbed a second shoreline, this one to help hold the bow away from the rocks. But when she pulled the line out of the coil to tie it to a tree on shore, she ended up weaving it into a giant knot, too short to reach back to the boat.
With Madrone steadily sailing towards the rocks at the edge of the caleta, Mike finally realized his mistake. Calling Angie back to the boat, they cast off the shoreline (good thing they followed the recommendation to use floating line), pulled up the anchor and headed out of the caleta to regroup and try again. With one shoreline floating lazily on the surface and a second hanging in a huge pile from a tree, Madrone’s crew was lucky that the local birds were the only spectators.
The second attempt was better, and after almost two hours of work Madrone was anchored in the right place, and tied to shore at the correct angle with three separate shorelines.
If we don’t get better with the shorelines quickly, it won’t be the stormy weather that gets us – it’ll be a heart attack as we watch Madrone drift towards the rocks.
