Things caught by your anchor?

Walz

Walz

New Member
Mar 7, 2008
163
Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
1999 310 DA, radar, HDS-7 GenII
"Springer Time"
Engines
350 MPI Inboards
Yesterday I made a trip across the bay to a popular hangout on the upper bay, Fairlee Creek. When it was time to leave, I pulled the anchor up using the cockpit windlass controls. Everything seemed normal. I started to weave my way through the many anchored boats and people started calling to us and pointing at my bow. Seems I hooked an old abandoned crab pot with the anchor and it was hanging in front of the boat! I couldn't see it from the cockpit. My friend went up front and after letting the anchor down a little, was able to remove the pot. However, he was a muddy mess and we had to figure what to do with a collapsed pot coated with black, sticky mud. Ended up leaving it on the swim platform to dispose of later, followed by much scrubbing.

This got me wondering what other "treasures" people have retreived along with their anchor????

P.S. Perhaps some of you saw me there?
 
I pulled up a rusty outboard engine my first year on the Hudson.
 
I just picked up an old anchor line this afternoon. It felt like the anchor was still down there, but the line was too slimy to try to pull it up.
 
I pulled up a dilapidated metal framed rocking chair once. The guy next to me in the bay Saturday pulled up what looked like a mid-grown cedar tree. I asked him if that was what he was fishing for. LOL. He had a 280 Sundancer and it stood up a good 10 ft out of the water before he shook it loose.
 
Is Fairlee salty enough for the good crabs? I am a lousy fisherman (and crabber). This is a real question. A couple of friends of mine that always seem to have good luck crabbing tell me they always like to get a little closer to the bridge because there is better crabbing in the saltier water. I know that the outcome of their outing a couple of weekends ago was delicious!

Oh.. and I caught part of, or a whole tree 3 times at Fairlee. For the 1st time this year, I had to make 3 passes at setting the anchor. We did it the same way that we always do. We had about 7.5' of water under us, so I held position while she let out the rode using the bow switches. When I saw the last link of the chain hit the gipsy, I hit reverse while she continued paying out rode. She stopped paying it out twice, and the anchor didn't take hold. I told her to let out more rode. No go. Pulled it up, moved the boat forward and tried it again waiting until I had all of the chain plus about 10' of rope in the water before hitting reverse. Same deal. I'm no quitter, so I asked her to pull it up again for take 3. When the anchor came up, we had a 4" diameter log or branch snagged. If it was a single log, it would have been about 15-20' long if the opposite end was sitting on the bottom. The admiral thinks it was part of a whole tree. We don't know. Moved 30' to starboard and we got it set as usual. This was near where the remains of a small pier are on the southern side.
 
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After a long run from Key West to Sarasota I was tired and ready to anchor up for some sleep. Got into the basin in front of Marina Jacks and dropped the hook. Wouldn't set. No matter how much I tried, it just wouldn't dig in.

Finally grabbed a flashlight and went forward to find someone's damn throw rug pierced in the flukes of my danforth. Grrrr! Probably blew off their swim platform and sank.

Pulled it off, put it in the bin and anchored up. Now I use a 35lbs quick-set Delta.
 
Must be something about Fairlee, we snagged an anchor there a few years ago. And no it wasn't attached to a boat at the time!
 
Got a call at 8am on a Sunday morning saying that someone was 1 hour away and wanted to look at my previous boat(Carver 355 Aft). We were anchored on a beach with the rest of my friends. The beach had a pretty good incline and my friends side anchor line was under my pulpit. Had about 3ft of clearance. Current was running so I had to come off the beach a little hard. When I did the pulpit/anchor went down and caught his line. I was 3/4 off the beach when I figured it out. Couldn't put her back on the beach because I would have ended up against my friends boat. Put her in gear to stop and spun it around slowly to let it rest against my friends swim platform. I've never seen my friends run so fast and climb ladder to unhook the line. In the end nothing to my boat and broke a small latch off his swim ladder. Sold the boat that day...
 
Last month I used my windlass to pull up the anchor after a night on the hook. The windlass was slowing down and the anchor finally broke the surface. Found I had picked up 2.5 inch cable (there was no cable crossing sign on shore). Took most of my strength to free the cable without losing a finger between the flukes and the cable.

I was very impressed with my windlass being able to pick that cable up from 30 ft of water. The whole bow was pulled down. Our very own Sundowner saw what we had on the anchor too....
 
Last year I pulled up a wrought iron head board. There was only about 3/4 of the head board left.
 
Caught a car in about 15 feet of water several years back. Had to swim down to get it loose. Water was too murky to see if Hoffa was in the driver's seat.
 
A while back, while raising the hook, the bow started to dip. I continued to bring it up and lo and behold, a twin sized mattress was snagged in one of its coiled springs.
Still looking for whoever was in the bed. Took a little effort but finally released the mattress and let it go to another resting place. Unbelievable!!!!!
 
Last year I dropped in a cove in Norris Lake and after several hours anchored it took every bit of ass I could muster to break loose, once I was loose I pulled the rest up with the windlass to find a tire around the anchor. What are the odds? I couldn't have dropped the hook through the center of a tire if I tried a hundred times.
 
Don't know if this counts, but my anchor "caught" my wife's head.

We trailer our 270 and as many of you know, some the hard way, the anchor is about head high when standing on the ground.

Well, on the inaugural launch day of our new to us boat, while walking to the truck, she takes a short cut and steps over the trailer tounge and smacks her head on the stock end of the anchor. It took an hour for her to recover.

We still launched that day, but now have two ugly tennis balls as "caps" for the anchor stock. And yes, I have forgotten to take them off and yes, I was duly ridiculed and laughed at last July 4th.
 
I pulled up an unmarked undersea cable a few years ago. I was surprised the windlass pulled it up. Very scary seeing a 2-3 inch thick cable hanging off the anchor, hoping it's not going to leak electricity and fry you.

Had to lift it up with a boat hook to free the anchor - took all my strength to do it.
 
Walz said:
Yesterday I made a trip across the bay to a popular hangout on the upper bay, Fairlee Creek.
Click to expand...
We were there two weeks ago. It's often a hassle getting a decent anchoring there. When swimming I could feel a couple of rather large tree limbs down on the bottom. What fun, either a loose hook in the really filthy black mud or caught in a branch. But at least it's nice swimming.

Brought up a large tree limb last weekend back in Mill Creek off Whitehall Bay. And in the process discovered just how fast our 14 month old boy can duck between me and the wife and slam the port throttle into hard reverse. Seems I'll be tightening the windlass after than little incident...
 
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Last summer in a local lake, got the anchor up caught in the flukes was a single burner camp stove (type you carry in a backpack) with the minny gas tank still attached and hissing gas. Could not get the nob to shut it off so just tossed it back for some one else to catch.
 
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