What Makes A Good Anchorage

Saugerties, NY
43 04.390 N 073 57.10 W

Espous Creek is a great anchorage (see the picture) and Saugerties is a great destination.

What makes an anchorage good?

1. It must be practical.  Some places have rock bottoms where the anchor won't bite.  Some places have water so deep so close to shore that it's impossible to let the boat swing.  Long stretches of the Hudson are like that where the water is 50-100 feet deep right up to the shore.  No anchoring is possible.
   
2. It must be safe.   That means it must either be sheltered from wind and/or waves or that it must be insensitive to dragging.   In the picture, Tarwathie is anchored at the base of a cliff, and the cliff is topped by tall trees.  The other bank is the same.   Shelter couldn't be better.   Even a direct hit by a tornado would not disturb us. The tornado would jump from hilltop to hilltop.  Only Otter Creek in Vergennes Vermont and Espous Creek in Saugerties NY offer this degree of shelter.
   
   Croton Bay on the Hudson offers much less shelter, but it is insensitive.  By that I mean that the bay is several miles wide, about 10 feet deep everywhere, and there are very few boats, or rocky shores to run into if the anchor drags.   In that case if the anchor drags a few hundred feet, so what?
   
3. Some place to go ashore.  Our secret spot on the Pasquotank has no place to go ashore but we didn't care.  Usually though, we do want to go ashore.  Very many attractive anchorages have no such place.  That's especially true on the Chesapeake.  There are countless creeks in the Chesapeake that offer good shelter, but they are bordered 100% by private property offering no chance to go ashore.
   
4. Beauty, and scenery natural or man made.
   
5. Lack of annoying noise, insects, road and/or boat traffic.

Today's anchorage in Espous Creek meets all those criteria.  At least for today, Friday, we've yet to see what it's like on the weekend.  I'll blog later about the village of Saugerties.