Boat jargon is like learning a new language to those, like me, just entering boat land. Anchoring, mooring, and docking are distinctly different actions. A boat is “anchored” when it “rides” or “lays” to a single anchor. A boat is “moored” after it picks up a mooring buoy” and “docking” means “to tie up to dock”. Of the 16 nights I spent on the trip, we spent 7 nights anchored, 9 tied up to a dock. One night we tried to “pick up a mooring buoy”, upon closer inspection of the buoy we found that that buoy was private property so we “anchored” instead. If you have mastered all that boat lingo there’s a lot more!!! You speak of the anchors of a boat as “hooks”. There’s kedge anchors, bow anchors or bowers, a sheet anchors, a storm anchors just to name a few.
The word anchor comes from a Latin word anchora meaning bend or bent which certainly suggests the shape of an anchor. But you also “bend the line” to the anchor “ring” which then becomes the “anchor line” or “rode”.
I hope I never have to haul up an all-chain anchor rode without the services of an anchor windlass. The electrically powered Windlass aboard The Schocking is truly to be appreciated. With a touch on the foot switch the anchor can be raised or lowered effortlessly but with caution. A reversible motor on an electric anchor windlass allows you to weigh anchor and to let go the anchor with control. We used a 2 person system when dropping anchor or hoisting the anchor. We made the procedure of anchoring a 2 person on the bow operation with the Captain at the helm. Watching to make sure the chain stays in the center of the warping drum, a concave surface to keep the chain centered, the anchor would be lowered into the surface measuring the length of chain left out. When the chain length was sufficient, the Captain backs the boat and “sets the “anchor.” Reversing that process requires hosing off the silt, sand, or sea growth that attaches to the chain as it is brought up and is stored in the “chain locker”.
The word anchor comes from a Latin word anchora meaning bend or bent which certainly suggests the shape of an anchor. But you also “bend the line” to the anchor “ring” which then becomes the “anchor line” or “rode”.
I hope I never have to haul up an all-chain anchor rode without the services of an anchor windlass. The electrically powered Windlass aboard The Schocking is truly to be appreciated. With a touch on the foot switch the anchor can be raised or lowered effortlessly but with caution. A reversible motor on an electric anchor windlass allows you to weigh anchor and to let go the anchor with control. We used a 2 person system when dropping anchor or hoisting the anchor. We made the procedure of anchoring a 2 person on the bow operation with the Captain at the helm. Watching to make sure the chain stays in the center of the warping drum, a concave surface to keep the chain centered, the anchor would be lowered into the surface measuring the length of chain left out. When the chain length was sufficient, the Captain backs the boat and “sets the “anchor.” Reversing that process requires hosing off the silt, sand, or sea growth that attaches to the chain as it is brought up and is stored in the “chain locker”.
The picture of the BIG boat is not the boat I was on, it was "moored" behind us!
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