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)

Best anchor alarm app