I have....but not really.

A group of us went boating here.

I distinctly remember hooking up my Anchor Buddy on the bow, and when I threw the anchor in 8 feet of water, I heard a metallic clink and saw my Anchor Buddy line disappear into the water. Somehow or another, it got disconnected and I thought for sure that I had lost $70 in marine gear and would never see it again....

....until one of my boating partners made a grappling hook out of nails and some wire the next day. He saw the line (how could he not. It's bright yellow !) and pulled it in with the hook. (Kinda reminded me of the last episode of Deadliest Catch, when Sig of the Northwestern retrieved his lost anchor, hehe).

Upon inspection, I saw that the metallic clip on the Anchor Buddy was not defective or damaged at all. I find it odd that it would somehow got disconnected, and could not for the life of me figure out how it did that.

Anyways, anything weird like that ever happen to you guys?

Lost an anchor and anchor buddy also. We were camping and I keep the anchor buddy in place by attaching a small line length of boat between anchor buddy and shoreline. We had lots of family over so we were swapping folks in/out for tubing from shore. As I was pulling away, the hook on anchor buddy got snagged on tube. The shoreline pulled so taut the small line popped. My son saw the hook connected to tube and held it up to show it to me. But, the anchor buddy was stretched too much and it pulled out of his hand. We tried finding it using a boat hook to no avail. Now, I keep a small ski buoy tied to the hook so I can see where it is and it will keep the end from sinking to bottom if it comes lose.

July 5th watching fireworks. Acnhored for a couple hours in fairly stiff current about 20 feet of water. Must have hooked something big cause it wouldn't budge. Pulled, pushed, let out more line, pulled from different angles. Nothing. In the end I had so much tension on the line I barely touched the knife to it and it snapped.

No but I found one attached to a rope while swiming one day. That was pretty funny.

While diving, we hooked an anchor once and could not retrieve it. Tried everything to get it back but would not budge. We had no air left in the tanks to safely retrieve it so we left it to mark the dive spot.

i was fishing once in about 20 feet of water and dropped anchor. there was a crab pot nearby, but i thought i was far enough from it that it wasn't in my way. i had a heck of a time retrieving the anchor, and this was with a windlass. it turns out that crab pot owner had two pots tied together with some very thick rope on the seabed. i had snagged the rope with my anchor and just barely managed to raise the rope out of the water. it was early in the season and the water was cold, so i didn't want to go in if i didn't have to. i duck taped a hunting knife to my boat pole and from the bow, sawed through the rope until my anchor was clear. if mcgyver was around, he would have been proud.

Had the first part of the rode wrap around a coral head once in Hawaii.. about 30 ft down. You can get in trouble for destroying any part of a reef, and with a boat load of tourists, you do the right thing, so the only thing to do... freedive and unwrap it. Just as I reached the chain, I felt a knife-piercing pain in my left ear as it ruptured. (I had learned how to pressurize and had dived deeper in the past with no problem) Had to unwrap it tho, and managed to do so. Upon reaching the surface, everything was spinning! Got a big round of applause tho!!!!

I had quite the opposite experiance. Last summer, I dropped anchor, enjoyed the day, and when time came in to retrieve my anchor, I found my anchor had hooked the loop at the end of a line. I reeled in that line to find a Fortress type anchor twice the size of mine! Clearly someone dropped anchor without securing it to the boat first. Still have that new to me anchor and am trying to find a use for it.

"(Kinda reminded me of the last episode of Deadliest Catch, when Sig of the Northwestern retrieved his lost anchor, hehe)."

Exactly what I was thinking of as I read your post.


I was once using my fortress in about 8' of water and I had clip'd it to an old line I had on board.
When came time to pull it up, I found we were floating away and a limp line came up. The old knot on the clip had come loose.

I could see the fortress shimmering, the water was a bit cool, but I had no choice but to dive in and get it. brrrrr.

I keep cheap-o fold up anchor on board for these occasions now.

I did have a case of the stupids once(once with an anchor that is). Got mad after several attempts to anchor my boat in a pretty stiff wind. Decided to throw the anchor. I stood there and watched the anchor and chain fly, with nothing else.. I must have unclipped the rode from the chain unintentionally. If it doesn't hold now we just float.

Had the knot come untied from one once in 50 degree water while fishing in about 12 feet of water. Wasn't a real expensive hook, so we pulled out and started drift fishing. Caught more fish while drifting then the others that were out with us did anchored...

Lost 2 rather large ones since we bought the Skipperliner, both due my old friend, the wind. (This boat is named "Soft Wind", I just love the irony)

First anchor went shortly after Chris (she's the one in the pink bikini in my other thread) decided to jump off the un-anchored boat--with no jacket--just as the daily windstorm hit. The boat started going south, Chris couldn't EVEN keep up, and the race was on...I had an anchor sitting on its holder, the rode wrapped around 2 rope hooks welded to the railing. Problem was, the END of the road was tied to one of the hooks, and not the railing or a cleat. I was ALMOST able to unwrap the rode fast enough, but not quite. By the time I got to the rope's end, it was too late, and there went the anchor, rode AND the hook. Chris's uncle (I think) swam to her and kept her afloat until I could get the boat upwind from her... (and NOBODY is allowed to jump off OUR boat without a jacket no more.)

On another day, the second victim was happily holding our boat fast, when, looking south about a mile, I could see the water going bad. The daily windstorm was upon us. I fired up and drove over the top of the anchor, and couldn't get it loose for love nor money...I drove the opposite way to try to get the boat to loosen it, nope. Uh oh, here's the wind, and it was bad. The wind pushed us back, and after that I couldn't get any slack in the line. I had a fender to tie onto the rode, but I didn't have a small piece of rope handy, the rode was too tight to use IT to tie up the fender, and the wind was a howling--I just wanted to get my butt back to the harbor! Grabbed the butcher knife from the kitchen, and I no more but barely touched the rode with the blade, and there went THAT anchor! We almost lost a sailboater in that storm

To all those folks who just had to cut their lines and lose an anchor: that is just one sickening feeling that I hope I never experience.

Then again, I'd rather lose an anchor than a boat....

Lost one when I put too much "juice" into trying to break it free from the mud. Came up with a frayed anchor rode.

I lost an anchor the other day. It was attached to a doughnut tube towable. I had left it anchored there for about 15 min while I did a ski run around a bend. When I came back, the tube and I guess the anchor as well were no where to be found. There were about 3 other boats around the area that came and went during my 15 min run, so I guess one of them will have a "guess what I found on the lake today" story.