This app is called “Anchor!” and is here on the Apple App store. The app even has a feature that it can apparently call or text you if you drag… has anyone tried this? If you have trouble sleeping at anchor this might be worth a try! Heck its just $1.99. You can even see we are in nice sand between grass patches!! Ain't technology wonderful!! When the phone is online the App also grabs a satellite image of the surrounding area which I think can be quite helpful (although it won't work in all areas) Here we are in the Bahamas and the island next to us is Thunderball Cave near Staniel Cay Exumas. The previous track of the boat (in this case the past 20 hours) is easily seen in various colours so you can differentiate older positions from newer ones. In this screen-cap you can see the boat to the left and the anchor in the middle of the red circle "safe zone". Well I have finally found a solution that works GREAT in the form of an App for my phone! I have been testing it for some time, but they recently came up with an update and it is now really great! What if we had just had a large Sunday Roast dinner and a bit of wine and I didn't wake up with the squall. Cool!! When I woke with a gust or squall I could just roll over and peer at the small plotter screen - we were still on our arc - back to sleep! I left the plotter on all night and it gradually developed a lot of fixes in an arc as we swung on the hook. Then GPS accuracy improved (SA was turned off) GPS got better reception and I put a small handheld plotter by the bed. Getting a good nights sleep was still difficult. GPS accuracy was poor and LORAN towers went down (remember LORAN :-). A big improvement but prone to errors as we all are a little more muddled waking at 3AM with strong gusts!īack in those old days, there were crude anchor alarm features, but I never had much luck with them. Then for a few years (before chartplotters were in common use) we were using our GPS - writing the numbers down and comparing them to the numbers we should see. We might wake up to check our position and find the light ashore had been switched off, or the squall was obscuring the feature we we using to take a bearing. In the "good ole' days" we used our handbearing compass to take bearings on nearby shore features, but on a dark night that could be quite difficult. We love spending time at anchor but sometimes in the night when the wind shifts or a squall comes up you wonder if you are really so snug! Is the anchor dragging? Having your boat snuggly anchored in a beautiful setting is a great highlight of the cruising life for many people.
(Here is an update on our latest success in anchor alarm methods)
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