Approaching an anchorage, what are we aiming to achieve? The ideal is to drop the hook where you want it to lie, then move the yacht away from it, steadily paying out cable, until you’ve laid the chosen scope for the probable HW depth. At this point, the cable is snubbed and the yacht should dig in her tackle. Under sail, one or two sophistications enjoyed by the vessel under power are not possible, so you can only rely on the weight of the boat to dig in the hook We look at specific situations over the rest of this page and the next, but first, seamanlike preparation is key Before actually dropping the anchor overboard, a useful order of events goes like this:

■ Sort out where you’re going to anchor and decide on a suitable depth at which to let go;

■ Drop, or roll away any sails that won’t be needed;

■ Free up the hook and lower it over the bow so that it can be let go promptly;

■ If there’s a windlass, make sure its brake is ready to knock off or that it’s all set to wind out cable electrically. The cable should be suitably marked, or the windlass itself should read how much chain has passed over it;

■ Without a windlass, flake the cable you’ll need on the foredeck. Make the bight fast at the mark, so that you don’t have to handle the chain if it’s running out under load. So long as the chain is made off in advance, no fingers need be lost. If a sensible amount of chain is spliced onto a warp to achieve full length, the beginning of the warp is often a useful starting point for making fast. Once all that is done, there are several ways to proceed, depending on the wind and tide situation.