That chain anchor question someone asked reminded me of something I once did. Not sure if it qualifies as a stupid human trick, I thought it was kind of brilliant myself. We ran out of gas on the edge of the gulfstream once. The other boat I was with marked my position and went for gas. A stiff breeze was blowing us East twards the stream. I was afraid if we drifted into that current we could drift quite a ways before they got back to us. <br /><br />The problem was we were in 600 feet of water and I don't carry that much anchor rope. I started thinking of how to slow our drift and came up with a brilliant idea. I had a penn 12/0 with 1000 yds of 80 lb test on board so I untied the anchor and tied it to that reel. I let out about 400 yds and put the rod into my stoutest rod holder. Worked like a charm.<br /><br />Once my buddy got back with 10 gallons of fuel my son asked me how I was going to reel the anchor up. I took out my gerber tool and cut the line. I figured a $20 anchor and $40 woth of line weren't worth the effort it would have taken to try to reel that anchor up.