Losing Anchors At Flint And Steel

[Guest TelcoBroker]

I am sure I am not the only person to have jammed their sand anchor on the bottom at both Flint and Steel and also Gunyah - I have seen plenty of other boats doing donuts while the bow dips seemingly under the water and the prop comes out of the water.

What experience have you Fishraiders had with reef anchors in these spots? I have trouble getting a reef anchor to hold yet the sand anchor would get stuck 1 out of 5 adventures.

Is there a better all round anchor for use in the Hawkesbury than the sand anchor?

[Grantm]

I would say a reef pick is the way to go at F & S for sure, but would be no good in some of the strong current areas elsewhere in the river. Maybe carry one of each and swap em over using a d shackle as needs.

Tell you what I reckon 80 % of the F & R reef is actually made up of anchors. Someone will hit the jackpot soon and pull up a dozon or so anchors hooked onto their own

[peahead]

Gday Telco ...

I have lost 3 sand anchors at F/S which is a pain as I don't carry a spare so then for the rest of the day i'm forced to drift everywhere, it also makes the missus everytime I have to buy a new one.

What I do now, is everytime I anchor up at F/S I remove the shackle attachment from the top of the main arm of the anchor to the bottom, I then use 2 thick Cable ties to hold the chain to the top of the anchor arm.

This way if the anchor gets stuck, I simply lift the anchor, the cable ties snap and the anchor is is lifted backwards no more lost anchors

I do sometimes use 3 cable ties depending on how strond the current is running.

Hope this helps.

Peahead

[Guest Target]

Gday Guys, lost my fair share of anchors too. not at those places, but had the record of 3 anchors in 4 weeks go missing - and one was on allens boat too. I always carry a spare now, if you loose an anchor and need to emergency anchor beacuse of some sort of motor failure - you are litterally up the creek without the ...... And both are on ropes ready to go too.

I now just use a reef anchor around broken bay, if thats not holding I throw the sand anchor out using the same method as peahead. Attach the chain to the bottom of the anchor and then cable ties to the normal point. If it gets stuck, dive up, lift, the cable ties break and the anchor comes free (well most of the time anyway)

I have heard of a special Broken Bay anchor being used before - basically a length of U- beam with a few brackets welded on - holds rock and sand supposedly.

Adrian

[djmac]

yep i use the cable tie method as well

havent lost an anchor yet (touch wood)

but it has been well and truly stuck a few times.

cable tie breaks and it eventually comes free

[Cameron]

I have always used a reef anchor at the Flint & Steel and have yet to lose one there. I rarely have any trouble holding the bottom, but then I have 2 -3 metres of chain attached that would anchor the Queen Mary. My experience with anchors over the years has been that the length and weight of chain attached has a big bearing on the ability of the anchor to hold bottom.

On one occasion I managed to lose an anchor down off Bangally Head, but retrieved it with another anchor 3 months later!

[Jeff]

Back when I used to scuba dive regularly I did a dive on a reef out from Sydney Heads and must have seen about 100 anchors in various states of decay along just 50m of reef.

Ended up retrieving a large brand new sand anchor with the help of a lift bag

The reef consisted of large round boulders just touching each other and the shafts of the anchors had all wedged between the boulders with the prongs caught underneath. Unless you were lucky, pulling the anchors out involved straightening all four reef anchor prongs at the same time.

I wonder if F&S reef has similar boulder formations cause it sure catches a lot of anchors.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Guest Jocool]

If you have a dive ticket, arent you limited to the depth you can go on a run-of-the-mill ticket? Don't you need a more comprehensive experience to go to those depths? What depths does F&S run to anyway???

[mark_s]

A drift dive would be better if there is storng current. No need to fight the current then.

Many people go beyond their limits, particularly in less litigous countries. I had a mate who did his OW in egypt and they took him to 48m on his second dive. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

I am advanced so can legally go down to 40m, although I prefer staying above about 30m.

[Ken A]

I don't think I'd fancy a swim at Flint.

[ankles]

I don't think I'd fancy a swim at Flint. 

33004[/snapback]

yer i had two f>wits. in the razz nocking on boats fishing for jews about 2 years ago . that night two little sharks about 4 feet long . was caught in my boat . there is some big bite eeeeeee at the steel

[Trouble]

I agree there ken..gese you fellas must have some huge balls to dive at the mouth of huge river system..the amount of times i have been bitten off their is crazy..

[martinc]

never lost any on the flint - lost 2 on the spit & one on north head.

on the flint, I use a reef pick on a really short wrap, or anchor on the mud with the sand anchor chained to the pick, and drift back to the edge of the reef. But you tend to lose some ground tackle and the tide picks up.

One of the anchors I lost on the spit, I recovered 3 weeks later on the new anchor.

As for diving on the Flint - forget it - way too dirty, even on the new moon.

One of the anchors lost on the spit was courtesy of a kingie on 6kg line - clean burn through the 6mm rope, about 10 metres under the water. (I was fighting another king at the time on 10 kilo gear).