The Blue View - Our New Book

When we first moved aboard Nine of Cups in 2000, we dreamed of sailing off to as many far away places as we could, and since then, we have managed to find some pretty amazing and remote locations. One thing we quickly discovered, however, was that the learning curve for our new way of life was steep.

A case in point is the art of anchoring. We learned that what works well in Narragansett Bay isn't always the best approach when anchoring in the heavy kelp and deep anchorages of Tierra del Fuego, the coral atolls of the South Pacific, the deep grass and hard sand of the south coast of Australia, the muddy rivers of Panama or even the Florida Keys.

Over the years we've gained a lot of knowledge about ground tackle and anchoring techniques under different conditions. How do I deploy two bow anchors? When is it best to use a stern anchor? How do I rig anchors in series and why? What the heck are snubbers and kellets, and how do I use them? How do I pick an anchorage to weather an approaching storm, and how do I prepare for it?

Much of this knowledge was gained by talking with and observing the many cruisers, voyagers, yachties and fishermen we've met in our travels. As we learned a new anchoring technique, it often took a few iterations to work out the bugs and streamline the operation, and we made mistakes – lots of them.

Over the past couple of years, I've devoted a number of Blue Views to the art of anchoring. We collected these blogs, expanded on them, added a number of new topics and organized them into our new eBook, Nine of Cups Guide to Anchors and Anchoring. It covers everything from selecting the right ground tackle for your boat and your cruising plans to how you go about deploying a series anchor. If you are just starting out as we were in 2000, we think it will make the learning curve a lot less steep and help you avoid some of our mistakes. If you are an experienced cruiser, we think you will still find that it contains a great deal of useful information.

Nine of Cups Guide to Anchors and Anchoring is available in a .pdf format which will work just fine on your iPad, laptop or PC:

$4.99

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It's also available in Kindle format from Amazon: