How do you do it?

Hello!
I enjoy staying overnight at some branches of the Parana River´s Delta, here, near Buenos Aires.
To prevent it from blocking the navigation I have to anchor my boat (55 Ft trawler) using one anchor at the bow and one at the stern.
Until my wife is reasonable trained in maneuvering the boat I have to do everything by myself. The main problem I am experiencing is lifting the stern anchor (Fortress F 16) as it tends to get deeply stuck in the mud and once released (using the boat´s engines), lifting it by hand can get quite backbreaking. Using a capstan would be great.... but installing one at each side happens to be expensive and cumbersome. Any ideas?

Run the line to the bow and use the capstain there. If it is possible.

I have used that Fortress anchor as my secondary and have easily pulled it up by hand. I have 30' or so of 1/4 G4 chain then 1/2" nylon. The anchor and chain weigh about 40 lbs together. Not trivial but ok to haul up by hand.

I suspect that you are backing down from the bow anchor until you are over the stern anchor, then trying to break it out by hand. That would be tough.

How about doing the opposite, depending on wind strength of course. Let out more rode on the stern and go forward until you are over the bow anchor. Use the windless to break it out. Then go back and use the boat's momentum to break out the stern anchor.

Or if conditions are bad, put a float on the end of the stern anchor's rode and let it free. Then come back and pick it up after the bow anchor is hauled up.

David

Most people use a rope / short chain rode on their stern anchor so I'm going to assume that you do the same.

If your bow anchor rode is long enough, just back down on the stern anchor while paying out the bow rode. Have your wife pull in the slack to keep the stern rode out of the props. When the stern rode is vertical, have her cleat it off while you use the engines to break it free. At that point she should be able to recover the Fortress as it only weighs ten pounds. If she can't recover it, you can run to the stern and recover it yourself as you are still anchored at the bow.

An anchor windlass that you can control from the steering station would make this whole thing pretty simple.

When possible I try to do so, but in most occasions the boat tends to turn around with the risk of getting stranded during the maneuver

I did it both ways you mentioned. I always use the boats momentum (and engines) to break the anchor out. As you mention, holding capacity of an anchor depends on the type of bottom: mud is very sticky in these rivers and Fortress anchors do extremely well, so it is not uncommon to recover the anchor completely loaded with heavy mud, being this the heaviest part of the maneuver. sometimes I recover as much rope as I can, cleat the line and and drag it around the anchor just under the waterline to get the mud of.

I agree, but as mentioned in a previous post, in most cases, the anchor lifts a lot of mud from the bottom increasing the weight in up to 20 pounds

Use an anchor float and slip ring.

Not sure if this will work where you are anchored, but we typically throw the entire stern rode overboard with a float at the end. Then receive at the bow with a boat hook and the windlass.

Here is a video.