Anchor alarm question

I have tried the garmin alarm on the 8612 and its not that loud and located in the pilot house. I tried the vesper app on my phone and it works but gives just one loud honk ling a horn.
I am a very sound sleeper and would like something by the bed i could trust. What are you guys finding works best?

We use the pilot birth (or I do) if we are expecting any kind of wind.

We have an older Garmin 540 with internal antenna at the lower helm as a backup gps and for anchor watch duty. Our main Garmin 5212 draws over 3 amps; the 540 only 0.6. Perfect for overnight duty. The alarm is loud enough that I'm on my way to the helm by the second beep.

Your Garmin should have an alarm output on a couple wires. I bought a $2 piezo alarm, mounted it in a master closet, and connected it to my Garmin. No doubt it will wake me up.

Why not use a cell phone app like AnchorSentry and keep it next to your bed? I use my cell as a clock at night anyway, so makes sense for me.

I use the Anchor! ap on my iPad Pro and it is very effective, although I still set up a backup alarm on my Garmin.

My Vesper AIS 8000 had a great anchor watch and alarm function. They also have the ability to use a remote alarm. You could locate that in the master. I am a light sleeper, sometimes a curse, but for this issue, it is a blessing.

We have a separate Garmin 492 GPS in our main salon that also has an external piezo alarm in our sleeping birth. At any given time we can see the display and how far we are from our anchor drop spot. The display also serves as a soft night light.

I have started using the AquaMap anchor alarm on my IPhone app that I charge each night a foot from my pillow. I like being able to look at it thru the night to see which way the boat is laying and how many feet from my anchor that I am. I don’t think that anyone could sleep thru the alarm, it sounds like a European emergency vehicle just entered your stateroom.

Bought a baby monitor at Walmart for $20. Put one end on the bridge next to GPS with anchor alarm and other next to me in stateroom. Works great. Can hear waves lapping on my dingy that's tied off. It comes as 110v, but has a plug in transformer that makes it 6v dc. Bought a 12v - 6 v transformer on amazon for less than $10 as I didn't have 110v on the bridge and didn't want to run wires up there.

My biggest problem with an anchor alarm is remembering to set it when I first drop the anchor.

dhays said:

My biggest problem with an anchor alarm is remembering to set it when I first drop the anchor.

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I've been lucky with that. Setting the Vesper alarm app has become part of our anchoring routine. The few times we've forgotten, we'll retrieve most of the rode/chain and set the position, at least close to the anchor. The comfort degree while anchored is so much greater when I have the anchor watch on.
As far as hearing the alarm goes, I suppose I'm a light sleeper while we're on the boat (even though we both sleep better on the boat anchored than in bed at home) and I'll check the boat position via the app anyway since my phone is right over my head in the berth ,plus I'm a male 62+ years old and get up several times a night anyway .
We've been fortunate and have yet to drag the anchor and sound the alarm but if we did and it honked, even once, I'm sure I'd hear it. I'd probably go pee first before resetting the anchor but I'd hear the alarm!:lol:

backinblue said:

Why not use a cell phone app like AnchorSentry and keep it next to your bed? I use my cell as a clock at night anyway, so makes sense for me.

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That's what we do when cruising. There are several good ones. Another thing we used before the phones, (before it was lost) was a handheld Garmin GPS that had that function on it. I don't remember the model.

We set ours with a small fence, because I want to be woke up if the winds change direction at night, to make sure the anchor resets.

danderer said:

Your Garmin should have an alarm output on a couple wires. I bought a $2 piezo alarm, mounted it in a master closet, and connected it to my Garmin. No doubt it will wake me up.

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That is exactly what I did many years ago. It works fine although as someone pointed out, the actual GPS draws more current when powered up than I would like.

I have not tried a phone based alarm because of the fear that the phone would lose the GPS signal or the battery would discharge and the phone would shut itself off.

rwidman said:

That is exactly what I did many years ago. It works fine although as someone pointed out, the actual GPS draws more current when powered up than I would like.

I have not tried a phone based alarm because of the fear that the phone would lose the GPS signal or the battery would discharge and the phone would shut itself off.

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If your phone is charged it should last the night, but if you are really worried you should be able to easily install a 12V outlet to power it with a car charger.

One other thing I do is set my alarm clock on my phone for when the tide changes if I'm in a tide prone anchorage. That way I make sure the my anchor resets for the opposite direction and that no one else is dragging towards me.

TBill36 said:

One other thing I do is set my alarm clock on my phone for when the tide changes if I'm in a tide prone anchorage. That way I make sure the my anchor resets for the opposite direction and that no one else is dragging towards me.

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That's overkill in my opinion. If you have proper anchor gear that you trust and know how to set it properly, you should be able to sleep calmly at night.

Never thought erring on the side of safety should get in the way of sleeping. Apparently, you've never been in an anchorage and had some other boat with soundly sleeping occupants go drifting by.

TBill36 said:

Never thought erring on the side of safety should get in the way of sleeping. Apparently, you've never been in an anchorage and had some other boat with soundly sleeping occupants go drifting by.

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I've spent many nights at anchor. I've had other boats drift into me and bump alongside during the night. I threw out some fenders and rafted the boats together and went back to sleep. You can't prevent against everything. That's what insurance is for. Make sure you have good ground tackle and set it correctly and sleep like a baby. Make sure you check the weather for any approaching fronts and prepare accordingly. 99.9% of the time you should be fine. Or you and your wife could take 4 hour watches and make sure your boat and all surrounding boats are ok. Your choice.

If I may digress with a personal story you just bought to mind....
I had a new sailboat (only boat I ever bought new) and was in an anchorage I had never been in before. Space was tight and we had a good spot, but directly off my stern was a stone wall, maybe a couple hundred feet at best. During the night, thunderstorms came through blowing us hard in the direction of the wall. I sat up most the night in an open cockpit in rain gear, much of the time with the engine idling, in case the anchor failed and we headed towards the rocks. We never did and I finally collapsed in bed near dawn. The next day, it took all of my 30 y.o. strength to haul in the anchor (no windlass). It was a Danforth and had buried itself quite deep into the mud bottom. If I had known this the previous night, I never would have gotten out of bed!

OpenCPN
Fully customisable alarm
Our anchor alarm is the alarm they use in star trek and can be at deafening levels if you want it to be, all depends how good your speakers are.
It keeps blaring until you shut it down or go back in the circle.

Sleep like the dead every night, 365 nights a year.

I have an anchor alarm question for those who use them. What distance do you set your allowed distance (fence) too? I've been playing with an anchor alarm on my phone and it shows a GPS accuracy of 16 feet. That means that between the anchor drop anchor location and the boats current location it could be off by 32 feet. I typically anchor in 30 feet of water. With a 4 to 1 scope I would let out 120 feet of line. Assuming the anchor immediately sets where it is dropped then do you set your fence for 152 feet or what? Or, how much buffer do you add for dragging before it sets?

NWSeadog said:

I have an anchor alarm question for those who use them. What distance do you set your allowed distance (fence) too? I've been playing with an anchor alarm on my phone and it shows a GPS accuracy of 16 feet. That means that between the anchor drop anchor location and the boats current location it could be off by 32 feet. I typically anchor in 30 feet of water. With a 4 to 1 scope I would let out 120 feet of line. Assuming the anchor immediately sets where it is dropped then do you set your fence for 152 feet or what? Or, how much buffer do you add for dragging before it sets?

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You didn't allow for bow height above water but that's ok. Let's assume 10' for the math. Assuming 120' of line from the bow cleat, that means your boat should be no more than 113' from the anchor position. Add in the 32' of error and you are at 145'. However, that is at the bow. If your phone is 15' aft of the bow at your bedside, you are at 160'. So it depends on where you are anchored and how much a small drag would matter. In this example maybe 200' would be fine. If there were no dangers or boats close by, I would go higher. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience and rarely set an alarm, but this is what the math says for what it's worth.

TBill36 said:

One other thing I do is set my alarm clock on my phone for when the tide changes if I'm in a tide prone anchorage. That way I make sure the my anchor resets for the opposite direction and that no one else is dragging towards me.

Click to expand...

Great idea !
I need to do this when I have concerns about our anchorage.

Attach wires to the Garmin alarm and attach them to a relay. Attach a relay to an alarm that will wake the dead. And have a switch to shut it off (important).
I use a 12v bell like the one shown. About $20 on ebay, free shipping.
I use several bells, tied to all my alarms with an led light panel to id the particular alarm. One light panel can be viewed from outside the cabin so, if at a marina, they know what the bell was about.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/123985851064

Lepke said:

Attach wires to the Garmin alarm and attach them to a relay. Attach a relay to an alarm that will wake the dead. And have a switch to shut it off (important).
I use a 12v bell like the one shown. About $20 on ebay, free shipping.
I use several bells, tied to all my alarms with an led light panel to id the particular alarm. One light panel can be viewed from outside the cabin so, if at a marina, they know what the bell was about.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/123985851064

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Now that is an alarm! First time it’s false my wife will say it’s time to go home!

backinblue said:

If your phone is charged it should last the night, but if you are really worried you should be able to easily install a 12V outlet to power it with a car charger.

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Yes, I could try that. I think I like the idea of a small GPS with less current draw better.

rwidman said:

Yes, I could try that. I think I like the idea of a small GPS with less current draw better.

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isn't that exactly what your phone is?

dhays said:

My biggest problem with an anchor alarm is remembering to set it when I first drop the anchor.

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I never do that because I am at the bow when I drop the anchor.

Also, I don't want the current drain for the time between setting the anchor and the time we go to sleep.

I just account for the scope when setting the alarm.

backinblue said:

isn't that exactly what your phone is?

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No. My phone is a phone. It is intended for calling people and talking to them. The GPS is an afterthought and actually, reliability is an afterthought. The phone will turn itself off if the battery gets low and it will turn itself off if it gets too hot. Unlike my GPS, my phone won't notify me if it loses the satellite signal, it just merrily awaits the next incoming call.

rwidman said:

I never do that because I am at the bow when I drop the anchor.

Also, I don't want the current drain for the time between setting the anchor and the time we go to sleep.

I just account for the scope when setting the alarm.

Click to expand...

Do you mean current drain of your phone or GPS unit? I'd hope you have a way or charging a phone. For main GPS, I get it, you just need to set a larger radius if you set it after you are anchored to allow for a full swing from where you ended up. That means you can drag quite a bit in your current direction before you'll trip the alarm.