TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Anchor Watch Apps with Alerts

Do these apps work?
If so, do they connect to Charter Boats by chance?
How do they work?
Any suggestions for a Charter?
After hearing about more boats running aground and some breaking free from a Mooring I started thinking it might be worth looking into.
What say you all???

Most of these incidents have been mooring incorrectly or inappropriately rather than a mooring failing due to neglect. I see Moor Seacure out all the time and I do think the moorings in regular use are stasticially pretty safe, especially if you're not the biggest boat out there.

Knowing how to tie up, where to tie up and when to tie up would prevent the great majority of these incidents.

Agree EZ.

Agree EZ and MID. And, the anchor alarm apps work. They work on any boat as they use the GPS on your phone (they don't connect to the boat's GPS....at least the ones I've seen). Try it out ahead of time so you get a feel for settings and sensitivity.

On the anchor apps, they just use the phone GPS to alert if the phone (and boat) leaves a pre-programmed radius, no communication with the boat electronics is needed.

Certainly not a bad idea as a backup, as long as it doesn't go into the decision making of leaving the boat unattended at anchor or going to sleep in questionable circumstances.

I use “anchor alarm” on an iPad with built in GPS. It does work (only testing, not yet a real event fortunately). It has pairing with another device but I haven’t activated it. Certainly helps with peace of mind while anchored at night. I tend not to use it on moorings in the BVI but have used it on nasty looking moorings eg in Antigua.

I also use an anchor alarm app. I've tried a few different ones and I keep going back to the first one I used. It has the remote feature so I use my iPad and leave that on the boat with the remote transmision to my phone. It is called Anchor! and I think it is by Pomacanthus??? Make sure your device isn't on silent because then you can't hear the alarm when it goes off. Also, make sure to that the device that the app is on is plugged in as it does drain the battery overnight. You haven't really had a true sailing experience if you haven't had the anchor alarm siren jolt you out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night...only to find that it is a false alarm! LOL!

Caribbeangirl13 - then I've had a true sailing experience! It was about 1:00 a.m. on one of our first charters when it went off (awful sound on these alarms by the way). Since the boat was smaller, I jumped up and banged my head on the ceiling - it was a scene I will not forget running around the boat in my boxers making sure we weren't about to hit something!

For me, the key has been setting the anchor on the app in the right spot - where the real anchor actually is set - so the allowable radius on the app is the true radius or safe zone. On that night, I mistakenly pushed "anchor down" on the app after the boat had settled back 20 to 30 feet instead of pushing it right on top of the real anchor. Therefore, when the wind shifted during the night, the boat pivoted out of the established radius. Think about it, if the anchor is set in the app in the true center of the boat's swing, and you are 80 feet from the anchor, a 100 foot allowable radius should never give you a false alarm.

It's just hard getting the anchor set on the app in the true center when you are dealing with the anchor setting process for the boat. With a mooring, it's obviously much easier. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. Happy Easter everyone!

You are doing it correctly. If you forget to set it the best thing is just jump in the dinghy and set it over the anchor.

Steve,

Yes, this is usually my problem as well. I am typically steering when the anchor is being set so don't always have it positioned on the app perfectly.

Thanks everyone. Just wasn't sure what shape the moorings are in and there has been a lot of chatter about Boatyball and then several groundings so I thought the question was worth asking. Sounds like good common sense and seamanship and we will be fine.

I have accidentally cleared anchor set .

Ideally, app can recapture previous set.

....or move the set location manually in the app. I usually forget to do it until well after we've anchored. Standing at the bow, you can get anchor location set pretty close based on the amount of chain let out. Then go to the stern and set the alarm radius.

I’ve tried that, but it hasn’t been a perfect science estimating the anchor’s true location - but certainly better than just hitting set where you are. George, I like the dinghy idea - or a paddle board since I use a waterproof case and float for my phone. Thanks for the feedback everyone!