22
Tech Talk with SeaBits
ANCHOR
ALARMS by Steve Mitchell
Anchoring is an essential skill for cruising, but it can be stressful — finding the perfect spot in a crowded anchorage can test even the most seasoned cruiser. Knowing that you’ve stayed where you anchored, and how much rode to put out, can also be challenging. Technology has provided some tools that help make Anchor! running on an Apple iPad this process easier and safer. Before technology, anchoring basics included notating landmarks, keeping a log of GPS positions platform. Before the advent of systems covered below, I relied at the helm every few hours, and calculating drag radiuses, etc. Anchor alarms help by automating some of this, on Anchor! and the remote text/email feature when I left the and providing more features, such as a way to alert you when boat for any time at anchor. Anchor! is very easy to use and has an excellent graphical the boat moves outside a set circle. There are a lot of different representation of your movement around your anchor. The options when choosing an anchor alarm, ranging from a color of the line changes over time so you can see trends and simple system provided by a phone or tablet running an app, changes based on wind and tide. Configuring alerts is easy an AIS device providing monitoring, or a dedicated system — the audible and screen alerts are pretty much available built into a GPS or other by default, and are a great way to know if something is management system. wrong. Configuring email requires your iPad to have an email client setup already, and can be a bit more finicky. Part of the ANCHOR APPS Smartphone and tablet reason I like Anchor! is that it has a well designed user interface apps for anchor monitoring that makes it simple to deal with when you’re waking up from are very popular and have a deep sleep. In order to have a reliable anchor alarm experience with an developed in recent years app of any kind, you need to choose your hardware carefully. to be a reliable system if Using your phone might seem like a good idea — but what if you used appropriately. want to go ashore without it, or what if it runs out of battery? My favorite app is Anchor! Using a tablet is a good choice, but many have inaccurate GPS available for both Apple and or, in the case of iPads without cellular modems, none at all. Android devices. It has been I recommend using a dedicated iPad or Android Tablet that around a while, is very reliable is kept at the helm and only moved to another location when and easy to use, and has great you retire for the evening. Ensure it has a quality GPS, a reliable alarms. These include a bright battery and power setup, test the signal belowdecks where you visual screen indication (ideal sleep, disconnect it from Bluetooth radios or speakers so that for a dark berth at night to the alarm is local and loud, and test it frequently to make sure it wake you up), loud audible still works like you want it to. alarms, text messaging, email, and remote monitoring. The latter three features are AIS ANCHOR WATCH Vesper Marine is well known for their line of AIS transponders, premium and require either and a few years ago came out with a way to set an anchor alarm Vesper Cortex Monitor Remote a subscription or a one time leveraging that hardware. This was a genius idea since the AIS Anchor watch. payment depending on your 48º NORTH
22
SEPTEMBER 2021