Anchoring follies

[Home Cookin']

Re: Anchoring follies

The land in that photo is conservation land, not private property, so the boaters are not bothering anyone on that shore. There's homes several hundred feet across the bay, and I imagine they grow weary of the crowds, but the anchorage was popular long before the homes were built (the lots are not desirable because the water is only 1-2 feet deep over there and very rocky), so they knew what they were getting into. The reality is, the anchorage is "rowdy" about 25 days a year. That leaves 340 days of peace and quiet. Not a bad ratio. Also, when I say "rowdy" it's not really all that bad. Mostly family boats with kids, not Spring Break.

in that case it's all good

 

[Tagerman]

Re: Anchoring follies

In Chattanooga we have the Riverbend Music Festival where droves of boaters show up on the river to watch the main stage from the back and avoid the huge crowds inside the festival. They even support us by giving us a screen showing the video and speakers that face us! This is my favorite time of year to watch all the guys with their new boats and Academy Sports anchors with no chain to stay still. The river is shallow (11-14ft) narrow and fast through the downtown area and the bottom is smooth river rock maybe 5 inches to 10 inches in diameter. If you don't have a good anchor (I use a standard danforth with 4 feet of chain and never have an issue) you are doing to be pissing others off all night! I have had many a person drag me down stream before I started dropping anchor in the middle of the big boats. It's a mess! All of these people should have figured out how to do this before they came out to try and anchor in a fast river on a crowded night. I added a picture to show the madness!