Last night around mid night, I got an anchor alarm.

As I knew the Anchor Pro app is the only app running on my tablet, I could immediately exclude a missing GPS signal with a high probability.

I also didn’t feel and hear any strong wind while in bed. Thus, I was wondering and immediately fully awake.

Looking at the display, I saw MaRe’s position was indeed already about 25 m outside the permitted circle of 50 m and it was moving constantly. A dragging anchor drags in steps, thus the boat is always at a certain position, at least for a few minutes. However, the constant move of the position excluded the possibility of a dragging anchor. The only situation where a boat keeps drifting as indicated on the Anchor Pro screen is a complete loss of chain connection to the anchor pretty close to the boat. We are drifting without chain was the conclusion I draw in fraction of second.

In the next fraction of a second I was out of bed and in the cockpit.

What I saw was all the boat around me are there, and MaRe’s position within the group as it should be. Safe! No broken chain. Weak wind.

Looking at Anchor Pro screen I saw MaRe still drifting. GPS signal was there. Alarm – very noisy! – was temporarily silenced.
I thought about stopping the app fully, with unsetting the anchor position, and start a new anchor alarm setting with the anchor position from the history file of the app. I was just about doing this, when MaRe’s position on the screen jumped from an anchor distance of about 150 m to about 5 m.

The about 5 m distance from the anchor location reflected pretty well the situation of MaRe’s position within the group of boats around her.

A SW bug!!!

This time a serious one. (There are a few bugs in the SW.) The first serious one I found in 4 years with an 1 1/2 years COVID-19 enforced sailing break in between.

I still will use the Anchor Pro because I know it and over the years I learned I can rely on it.