The day finally arrived, we anchored The Dream for the first time.
Another first for the two of us, doing it in our own boat and alone.
A good weather window allowed us to have an easy crossing from Calpe in Spain (mainland) to the Balearic Islands making landfall in Elvissa, Ibiza late afternoon.
We made our way to Cala Talamanca just behind the harbour, found a good spot in between the Posidonia seaweed patches and dropped our 85lb Mantus. After setting the anchor in sand, we found it held immediately, we looked around and realised that we were a bit too close to the rocks in the protected corner of the bay than we wished for our first night at anchor, so we lifted it, found another spot and re-anchored and set a snubber. Now we were with a comfortable distance from everything around us, Ana went to check if the Mantus was buried using a paddle board and after, we set a marker for the anchor position on Navionics, prepared dinner and went to sleep.
Being the first time we were anchoring in our own yacht we didn’t sleep very well, always wondering if we were dragging or swinging too close to the other boats or rocks but the truth is all was fine, no hiccups. Just a very rolly anchorage due to the constant flow of ferries that connect the islands.
The following day we moved to Cala Llonga further North to seek protection of some stronger winds expected later that day (gusts up to 50knots) this would affect us later that night. Once again, we found our spot, dropped the Mantus while letting the boat drift backwards, put on reverse to set it and waited to see how The Dream would settle in this new anchorage.
Later in the afternoon, we changed our scope from 3:1 to 5:1 in preparation for the night. We set an alarm for 1h before the time the bad weather was forecasted and went to sleep.
The alarm rang, we got into our watch positions ready to jump in action in case we dragged or something else went wrong. Nothing happened, except that the wind funnelled through the topography of Cala and its surroundings and came from a totally unexpected direction.
We went back to sleep with one eye open!
We’ve been on anchor now for nearly two months, going through some rough winds but also rough seas and the Mantus as not dragged a single time and was set always on the first attempt and immediately
Being rookies on this anchoring business we weren’t 100% confident during the night but as time goes by and our experience increases we are getting more confidence in our investment on the biggest modern design anchor we thought the windlass already installed on The Dream would take. The 85lb Mantus paired with 100m of 10mm chain gives us the confidence needed.
From observation of others anchoring one thing never ceases to amaze us, is the number of power and sailboats of all sizes, ages and styles with incredible small old style anchors paired with very light chain dropping anchor time after time without success, ploughing the seabed.
Of course, seaweed and rocks can be a problem for everyone but we see this happening in areas we know it’s just sand.
The only thing we are not fully happy with is the bridle hook/ snubber.
The first one we got, bent during the strong winds we got on our second day anchoring, it was from Wichard for 10mm chain with a working load of 720kg and breaking load of 2400kgs, we got a second one in Palma de Mallorca this time with a working load of 1250kgs and a breaking load of 4000kgs.
None is brilliant, none stays on the chain easily, especially in light winds.
We will eventually get the one from Mantus, despite having a lower working load than the last hook we bought because of their design “clips” well on the chain preventing it from falling on light winds or when the pressure on the chain is released.
We should have ordered it together with the anchor but at that time the bridal and bridal hook didn’t even cross our minds and now since we are on the move it’s not easy to order things for delivery on the islands.
*** The above post is the sole opinion of the website owners based on their experience.
*** Sailing The Dream is not affiliated or endorsed by Mantus Marine nor by any of their associated resellers. However we wouldn't mind to test Mantus Marine gear on our 50ft yacht
***In the spirit of sharing our dreams and experiences we have shared this blog post in the NOFOREIGNLAND.COM website sailors community.