Dear Sir, normally we think that is impossible to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean, why?
Please let us together with Ms Aluminium boat shipyard to see the following matters:
1. The depth limitation:
The anchor is very familiar for the screw, most of time, where we want to stop the boat where we drop the anchor. Bust some person will ask, when we dropping the anchor, we should pay attention what kind of matters?
One of the most important factor is the depth. Because the boat could not just drop to the sea to 3km or 5km depth. In that case the water press is terrible, the anchor maybe could not bear that, and also we should worry about the chain maybe break because of heavy wind or storm.
Usually we drop the anchor usually within 50m depth, haha just the 50m depth equals to more than 17 floor. Even if it is a big boat, the dropping anchor is by the mechanical windlass, the length normally set to 13knots in China, and each knot of the chain is 27.5m, so the total length is no more than 360m. So that is to say, that is impossible to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean, otherwise you are in the deep sea island reef. We know there are many large islands like in Japan and Hawaii. There are actually many islands on the sea floor. However, many islands have not risen to sea level, or the islands that originally emerged are now submerged by the sea. There are many island countries in the Pacific facing the crisis of being submerged. If you find such a place, you can drop anchor smoothly even in the depths of the ocean, because such depth maybe just only 10m or so.
2. The position or terrain limitation:
In addition, not all places, as long as the depth is appropriate, the anchor can be dropped directly. You should also to check the place, is it suitable for anchoring, otherwise it will hang up. Under normal circumstances, why the port is suitable for anchoring? Because the seabed geology of the port is basically silt, and nearly few shellfish wrecks, reefs, shipwrecks appear, even if there is some of them, the port party must have directly picked it up for disposal.
But in an unfamiliar sea, you really can’t be sure, what’s underneath, it may be a sunken reef beach, or maybe a shipwreck. Maybe you do not have the place to drop the anchor, but your ship will advance a while along with the waves. If the anchor travels a certain distance, it may actually hang up. If it hangs on the seabed at a depth of forty to fifty meters, the ship will abandon the anchor. It is impossible for a team of sailors to dive down and drag the anchor up, right?
3. The weather limitation:
In addition the topography of the seabed, it is not suitable to anchor during strong winds and waves, because the wind and waves are huge and heavy, the ship will be like a flat boat in the sea.
Many people are so curious, why anchors can fix ships?
In fact, the anchor can fix the ship, not by borrowing the weight of the anchor itself, but by the anchor tip grabbing the soil on the seabed, when the ship is dragged by the water current, and the anchor is fixed on the seabed, there will be a reaction force, make it goes another direction, but if the ocean current floats in the opposite direction, you will find that the anchor will loosen quickly, but after loosening for a while, it will immediately tighten.
Anyhow, there is one thing that will not change. As long as the anchor is not stocked by stone, when pulling the anchor, there is an upward force, which will not be blocked. If it is a large ship, the anchor weight needs to be more heavier, otherwise it is easy to drive, heavier anchors is really important for this case.