Hey all,
I just finished this letter to the editorof Practical Sailor (US):
One almost side comment (the author) wrote did disturb me, as I am sure many will want to do as he does. He uses a “small float and some buoyant polyethylene line” to mark where his anchor is dropped “a useful signal to late arrivals in a crowded anchorage”.
I would wish boaters to consider and anchor buoy as a rarely used item, when bottom conditions are reported foul and snagging the anchor likely. The following are my concerns:
In a crowded anchorage, or any anchorage shared, and anchor buoy hogs real estate. With it another boat is unable to swing over the spot where the anchor buoy resides without worrying that his prop or rudder might get hung up on it. This essentially means the boat with the anchor buoy is taking up almost 2 spots.
Neighbourly behaviour aside, an anchor buoy (and its floating line) is a danger to the boat that is using it. I have seen other boats snag the buoy in wind shifts by swinging into it and pulling the anchor out. I have also seen (and experienced myself) the same happen in tidal current shifts and when you drift over it in light air. Lastly, I was enjoying a beer in the cockpit when I hear a neighbour screaming at another boat who had just picked up his anchor buoy thinking it was a pick-up buoy for a mooring.
Anchor buoys certainly have a place, but I would suggest only on rare considered occasions and not in everyday anchoring life.
Thank you, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Hi again,
A few suggestions to mitigate the need for an anchor buoy:
Tie a short (1 meter or so) line to the end of your anchor with a float and loop at the end. It floats free of a buried and tangled anchor. Then a trip line can easily be clipped on free diving or scuba. If stuck, do not hesitate to use the resources of the anchorage. Many can free dive to 25-30 feet and many will have scuba.
Use an anchor that sets fast and stays put: a Spade or Rocna come first to mind while a Manson may do as well. An anchor plowing away for a distance to set or dragging in a blow is an anchor looking for trouble.
Use extra scope to set your anchor quickly, then return to a chosen rode length.
I carry full scuba gear, mostly for emergencies to go deep for the anchor, but which is nice for prop wraps, zinc changes, bottom cleaning and recreation as well.
In many thousands, probably tens of thousands, of anchoring, I have fouled an anchor once (eventually pulled out backwards with full chain out) and never lost an anchor. I believe I do not know anyone who has lost an anchor (though I suspect I do). So, I would suggest, a fouled anchor is not common in everyday anchoring.
I have come close a few times to asking someone to remove (or tie back) their anchor buoy when it has made choosing a spot to anchor more difficult. I too prefer non-overlapping circles around the anchor, but this is often not possible. The anchor buoy can be removed and the line pulled back to the boat or dropped to the bottom. I suspect the response I would receive to this request would be similar to my asking someone to sacrifice their first born child.
My best to all, even those who use anchor buoys,
Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Simon, I found that same rock in Graciosa. All of a sudden we were short scoped and yanking heavily on the snubber in a rising chop having effectively shortened our rode length by half by wrapping it around the rock in light airs and current. We circled our way free. Later diving on the area, I have never seen so many rocky protuberances emerging from a bottom of clear flat sand like that before in any anchorage, and hope never to again.
Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

We should pass this intelligence onto Anne Hammick as I know she is revising her cruising guide.
Simon

[quote="simoncurrin" post=2134]We should pass this intelligence onto Anne Hammick as I know she is revising her cruising guide.
Simon[/quote]

She just emailed me from Horta so your timing is perfect.

Vice Commodore, OCC 

There are a number of relatively new products that assist with anchor retrieval.

The Anchor Witch was tested and reported on at Attainable Adventure Cruising. https://www.morganscloud.com/2012/11/15/review-of-anchorwitch/.

We have just obtained an Anchor Rescue system for testing http://www.anchorrescue.com/ and will be reporting on it shortly at CoastalBoating.net.

Vice Commodore, OCC