Ah, it’s been an idyllic day, sailing, sunning, and relaxing, but it’s getting close to happy hour and time to settle in. After motoring slowly into the anchorage, endless circling and testing for depth etc., finding just the right spot the husband stops the boat, heads to the bow and proceeds to lower the anchor.

"Is it in yet?" The wife calls forward from the cockpit.

"Slow!" He says, straining on the anchor rode.

Ever so smartly she revs up the motor in reverse.

"No" he screams, "Whoa !"

"Oh, I thought you said Go. Now what do you want me to do, Go or slow? Is it in yet?"

"No, I haven’t got it out yet, Slow!"

So she continues in reverse.

"No", he hollers. "Not Go, Slow, err I mean Whoa, err I mean Stop!" he hollers loudly to be heard over the noise of the engine.

Obligingly she turns the key and shuts off the engine.

"What are you doing?" he screams.

"I shut off the engine, you said Stop!", she says looking rather put out at being chastised.

"No, start it again and go", he says exasperated

"But honey aren’t we getting close to that other boat", she says, worrying now because all the other people on all the other boats in the anchorage are watching them.

"That’s because it’s not in yet, wait for me!"

Perhaps you’ve witnessed this or a similar display of anchoring. Perhaps you’ve done it yourself. I know I have! It’s difficult to hear each other from bow to stern, even on a smaller boat. The engine is running, perhaps a dodger is in the way, it’s raining or windy, it’s the end of a long tiring day. This all adds up to a situation where it’s difficult to communicate and tempers can flare. Good clear communication is the key to a smooth anchoring procedure. While reading an article on this very topic on the Cruising World web site I realized that I had developed a set of my own signals so the bow person could communicate with the person in the cockpit running the engine and steering the boat. These signals provide good clear explanations of what each other requires. Develop your own set of signals, practice them and review them with new crew who will be carrying out any of the anchoring tasks. There are two sets of signals, one for the bow person to communicate with the helmsperson and another set for the reverse. Each person has their own needs and specific job to do and requires information from the other to carry out those tasks. After reading these over my first reaction was, wow, that’s a lot of hand waving and finger pointing, how the heck can people remember all that. In fact most of the signals are pretty obvious and self-explanatory. Try them or some combination of them, used a couple of times they will be second nature.

 It must be made clear at the outset that the boat is being directed by the bow person. This means that regardless of the throttle position and the transmission position itself that an increase or decrease in throttle is in reference not only to the throttle but to the speed of the boat through the water. For example, in our sailing area, we often have currents to contend with. If the boat is slowly moving ahead with the current, a thumbs down signal to slow down may mean that the transmission has to be put into reverse and the throttle actually increased !

Signals for the bowperson to communicate to the helmsperson:

Direction - arm and hand extended, pointing in the desired direction.

Increase throttle - fist with thumb up

Decrease throttle – fist with thumb down

Engine in neutral – fist

Increase speed of boat - thumb up, extended arm and hand in desired direction

Decrease speed of boat - thumb down, extended arm and hand in desired direction

Stop boat’s movement - hand held flat palm down and moving back and forth

What is depth? – hand flat open with palm up

Dropping anchor - index finger pointing down

Anchor set and holding - OK symbol with thumb and index finger

Raising rode – index finger pointing up

Anchor broken free, raising anchor - index finger pointing up making small circles

Anchor up, free to manoeuvre boat - open palm, waving hand in a circle point forward

Signals for the helmsperson to communicate to the bowperson:

Depth of water - # of feet = #of fingers raised

Drop anchor now - index finger pointing down

Anchor set and holding - OK symbol with thumb and index finger

These signals will help you dropping or weighing anchor. The process will be less daunting and less stressful and everyone will end up with a smile on their face, even the folks watching from other boats. Of course you could also do like my dock partner. He simply purchased a set of voice operated headsets with microphone and ear-piece. They can have a quite little conversation back and forth from helm to bow and no-one even knows it!

Anchors-a-weigh!

Last updated  12 January, 2006 - © Aloha Owners Association