How to avoid sleepless nights rolling at anchor.

September 12 - 2015

Our second anchorage on our current trip north to the Great Barrier Reef was at Double Island Point, a spot renowned for providing sleepless nights due to swell induced roll. While the point is reasonable high, the terrain behind it is much less so with the prevailing South Easterly winds flowing over it relatively unimpeded. Meanwhile the normal South East or Easterly swell swings around the point and enters the north west facing anchorage.

The prevailing South Easterly winds and swell twisting around Double Island Point made the anchorage the perfect place to test a different anchoring technique we had read of. Advice provided in pilot guides is to anchor close to the point itself which we did, but when we first dropped our 30kg (65lb) Sarca Ex-Cel we experienced the usual persistent roll from the swell rolling around the point. (Boat image not to scale)

In his highly respected pilot guide, "Cruising the Coral Coast", Alan Lucas describes the anchorage at Double Island Point as '…one of the most uncomfortable on the coast'. Despite this reputation, many, many cruisers to use it to await the right tide and suitable conditions to cross the nearby Wide Bay Bar for their passage through the Great Sandy Straight on the inside of Fraser Island. That was the situation we found ourselves in.

In our case conditions were relatively mild when arrived mid afternoon with under ten knots of South Easterly blowing. However there was still a persistent half metre or so swell rolling beam on into the anchorage. It was more than enough to guarantee an uncomfortable night. It was the perfect situation for us to try a different anchoring technique involving running an extended snubber line  that we had heard about. 

Even in near perfect weather, the swell at Double Island Point can roll your boat all day and night.

First we anchored normally in about 4 metres of water and set the anchor putting down our usual five times scope and reversed up to make sure the anchor was well set.  As soon as the boat hung to the wind we instantly began to roll. We had unlimited room around us so we dropped an extra ten metres of chain just to be sure.

Next, instead of running our snubber line over the anchor roller as per normal, we hooked a longer line into the anchor chain and ran it outside the safety lines and back to our genoa sheet winch at the cockpit. We then slowly let out additional anchor chain to effectively create a bridle. As we did this, the wind progressively blew the bow around towards the incoming swell. We stopped when we were facing directly into the swell and then rode gently over each wave with no roll. The snubber line and 30 metres of chain we'd originally put down ended up in a straight line to our well dug in anchor sitting almost ninety degrees to the boat. Through the afternoon we were easily able to fine tune the angle by easing or winching in the snubber line at the cockpit.

(Boat image not to scale)

Here Our Dreamtime faces directly into the incoming swell while the similar full keeled ketch in front hangs to the wind and rolls with every wave.

We ran our extended snubber around the staysail winch to clear the stanchion and toe rail then adjusted our angle to the swell by easing or bringing the line in on the genoa winch.

While the conditions were quite mild, we were very happy with the results we were able to achieve using this technique. In stark contrast to our comfortable ride, a very similar ketch to ours was anchored conventionally in front of us and continually rolled in the small swells. Its skipper had been below when we dropped anchor and didn't see our set up. It was amusing to watch him repeatedly come on deck, stare up at his swaying masts then look across to our boat rising and falling bow first gently over the waves. We could almost read his mind thinking, "I should have anchored over where they are."

A couple of times through the night the wind dropped out which did allow the bow to swing about a little giving us an occasional bit of roll but we never came around far enough to lay beam on. It was very nice to rise early the next morning well rested for our bar crossing on the last of the incoming tide.

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UPDATE

Since that first test, we have used the technique many times with great success in a range of locations. One trap is if the current reverses or the wind changes taking the bow through the wind. Then the bridle ends up under the boat with the stern to the swell instead of the bow. You still don’t roll but the bridle could rub some anti-foul off. With a fin keel boat, we would recommend taking your snubber line to a midships cleat rather than a cockpit winch. This keeps the whole lot in front of keel and all but eliminates any chance of your line reaching the prop should the wind or current change.

Increased windage laying beam to the wind obviously adds to the load on your anchor and deck hardware so we only do this when the wind isn’t expected to top 15 knots. We also use plenty of chain and make sure the anchor is well set. We have unexpectedly experienced gusts up around 20 knots without a problem but if the wind persists at that strength we release the snubber and let the boat swing instantly bows to. We’re then no worse off than if we anchored conventionally in the first place.

Despite these limitations, we have enjoyed many blissful hours of sleep we would not have got without this a very simple  anchoring method. Give it a try and snooze on.

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Thanks for catching our latest Blog, cheers R&K 

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