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I am planning a 6 day camping trip. I plan on leaving the boat in the water overnight. The bottom of the lake is rocky/muddy. I use a danforth style anchor. It can get pretty windy at night.
Two questions:
1) do i need to reset the anchor half way throught the week as they may let water out of the dam?
2) anyone use more than one anchor...ie a backup anchor overnight?
If you have the option to tie off a rope to the shore, or a stake anchor to shallow ground i would do that as well. I like my anchor but not sure i trust just 1 to hold it all night. Course a morning swim to the middle of the lake for your boat will wake ya up.
So far I have only left my boat in the water overnight once so far--one big oversized anchor off the bow and another on shore, it was pretty protected so i was not to worried.
I'd definately use at least 2 danforth style anchors off the bow (at at 45-ish degree angles apart from each other), and either a mushroom anchor off the transom, or a line to shore. The mushroom will allow the boat to move a little in the tide, but it won't be swaying all over the place, which will help keep the front anchor(s) set. But I'm pretty anal about the boat, I'm sure you can get by with just one, but why test it? Anchors are cheap enough that I'd rather have overkill on protecting my baby :)
One danforth with a bungee and tie onshore. Pretty typical in the NW as water levels may drop a foot overnight. You can remote the depth alarm to your location with a digital baby monitor (up to a 1/2 mile) and you can catch any bad guys with it as well. No sweat and I prefer that over docks just because of boats banging docks and other boats and fishing lures and general dock horse playing. Put it out where no one goes.
After finding my "old i/o" boat on the beach one morning, I would never anchor my boat up again. I thought i had mine anchored enough and a storm just brewed up and was nothing I could do. When anchoring your boat you obviously want the boat to point into the waves so that can be a challenge if the wind changes at night. I know it would be a pain but i would pull the boat out every night. It could save you money in the long run.
When we go to Lake Ouachita it has a rocky bottom so we would take a used tire and run the boat up on that with a line to the shore around a tree. I would throw both anchors out a 45 degrees to the back and it would'nt move even during some really bad storms. Left it in the water for 14 days and never a problem. Always take the tire out when you leave, since it would trash the shoreline.
I appreciate everyones reply. Thank you for your time and sharing your experience.
When camping i try to get a spot next to the lake so i can just leave the boat in the water over night. It depends on the lake but most of the time i have an anchor on a bungee line that is a river one. I set it to make sure it is holding. Then i throw a smaller 30 lbs anchor from the bow also. Just in case. I then find a big tree and run a line from the boat to shore and time the boat up. The bungee allows me to pull the boat in close enough to only get my legs wet but allows the boat to float back out to deeper water for the night. Everything is on quick connects and disconnects so it is easy to leave all lines in place for morning runs. Also tie bumpers to the anchor lines so you do not have to go swimming for them. I check my anchors every day by diving down and making sure they are still holding and have not moved any.