Anchoring Frannie

20 things to do at anchor: 

1. Accidentally anchor in front of P.Diddy's house in Miami and get woken up by his obscenely loud party at 5am.​ ​

2. Receive fresh lobster and a bottle of wine from a Bahamian local as a welcome gift!​

​3. Get yelled at by a nearby landowner in Florida to "go back to Canada".​

​​4. Worry constantly about your anchor coming loose during the night & your sailboat drifting into something/someone. 

5. Wake up in the morning & poke your head out the window. Panic momentarily, then realize you're still in the same spot (phew), you've just rotated around your anchor (which is normal). 

6. Sleep with all your hatches open so that you're basically outside. Feel the breeze on your face, enjoy the rocking of the boat, and swat a few mosquitos while your at it... and then flood your house a little when a quick rain squall rolls through in the night (which it will in the Bahamas).  

7. Fail to communicate properly while dropping the anchor, throw the boat in reverse before the anchor is cleated off and send your crew straight into the water. 

8. Get so used to sleeping in a bed that rocks slightly (or sometimes a lot), then have trouble sleeping on land again. 

9. Forget to turn your anchor light on when you go ashore for drinks... get slightly tipsy, then try to find your boat again in the dark. (Haha... good luck).

10. Listen to the waves crash against the boat during a storm. Irrationally fear that they are going to break through the hull even though you know you've got very strong, thick fibreglass between them and you.

11. Have a nice elderly couple sneakily anchor next to you mid day while you're naked on deck in the middle of nowhere... be uncomfortable while they talk to you without acknowledging your nakedness. 

12. Be far away from cities and people. Fall asleep on deck under the brightest stars listening to the purest silence... be the only person for miles and appreciate it - because it's rare! 

13. Worry some more about your anchor dragging in the night... 

14. Anchor amongst your fellow sailors, make new friends, visit your neighbours' boats, and stay up late into the night drinking rum under the stars!

15. Get "waked" in the middle of the night (passed quickly by a large boat which causes big waves that roll you over and/or make things fall of shelves). 

16. Hear very disturbing "squealing" noises coming from the nearby beach, later find out that it was the vet visiting the pigs on the beach to "fix" them (they are very well taken care of). 

17. Play the popular sailor game: "what is that noise?" - accept the fact that you will not always win... some noises aren't meant to be explained on a boat. 

18. Anchor in shallow water and a strong current. Listen through the hull in the night & hear the stones/other debris skipping along the bottom.

19. Finally learn to trust your anchor and stop worrying. Drag for about 200' in one of the busiest anchorages of the Bahamas. Miraculously, don't hit any of the hundreds of boats anchored around you and promise never​ to become complacent again. 

20. Finally, if you complete nothing else on this list: enjoy the constantly changing scenery. Sleep surrounded by marshes, mangroves, swamps, beautiful coral, uninhabited islands, white sand beaches, and crystal clear ocean. Embrace also the nights you spend in front of loud/industrial fishing ports, busy world class tourist beaches, and the houses/private islands of the rich and famous... Be present, be grateful. 

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Why do you guys anchor so much anyways? 

Haha alright, let's get more serious. We find that a lot of the "landlubbers" we meet have a lot of curiosities about anchoring. At night on a sailboat,  you have 4 possibilities: don't stop moving at all, anchor, grab a mooring ball, or find a dock. When offshore, you're stuck with #1 - sail through the night. We explore this in our post "An Introduction to Life at Sea".  As for the other 3 options, it all depends on weather, location, desired comfort level, and budget. We almost always opt for anchoring, and here's why.

• It's free.  As long as you're not anchored in a prohibited spot where you could get ticketed (marked channel, airport zone, certain national parks, etc...) you don't have to pay to anchor. Just rock up to your chosen site and drop the hook! 

• Private or Social? You choose. Although there are designated anchorages where most cruisers go, there are no laws (in most countries) against anchoring outside of these. We love being able to call it a night wherever we may be! It's easy to find spots where you're the only boat in sight, but you can also find an anchorage with many fellow cruisers if you're feeling social! 

• Staging for adventures. When you're not tied (hehe) to predetermined locations of mooring balls or docks, you can drop the hook by any town, island, or beach that you wish you explore that day or the next. It makes for shorter dinghy trips and many more adventures. 

• There’s nothing like sleeping at anchor. You’re cozy in your own bed, yet you’re exposed to the elements, raw nature is all around you… you can hear the water lapping against the hull, the waves splashing the dinghy around, the wind whistling by the mast through all your tightened halyards and stays… you can feel the ocean rocking you like a baby as you lay there feeling safe and comfortable (usually... we'll get to that).
  

Why might we opt out of anchoring?

• Amenities. Typically, a mooring ball or dock is associated with a marina or yacht club. Although you pay a fee (anywhere from $20-$120/night for our boat), you usually get access to a few things you wouldn't get at anchor. These range but can include: hot showers, WiFi, fresh water/electricity access, pool, restaurant/bar, laundry, etc... We can get most of these things by taking the dinghy ashore and going into town from our anchored boat... but sometimes, we're tired and want them all in one place. 

• Weather. If there is really bad weather coming and we have reasons to believe we would be unsafe at anchor, it's a no brainer for us to spend the money to secure the boat to a mooring ball or dock!
  

• "Boat Fever". If we've been on the boat for too long, sometimes we go a little crazy. Even though we go ashore often in the dinghy, there is something to be said about being able to step right off the boat onto dry land. This is especially important when we have multiple days of bad weather in a row - if we're at anchor we usually don't leave the boat at all - and this can get... messy​. 

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We hope you enjoyed this little insight into the world of attaching your tiny floating home to a hook and blindly hoping you stay put. Although we've been writing less and video-ing more, we quite enjoy sitting down to blog. So thanks for reading!