Anchors, a weigh-in.

<- What is this? Well, it's an anchor, of course. Kinda the iconic "One anchor to rule them all". When someone says "anchor", this is what generally comes to mind.

However, with all things nautical, there is never just *one* way to do things, but more on that, in a minute.

What is the primary purpose of an anchor? It's the "emergency brake" for ships, used only when you don't the ship moving . Any ship, whether it be power, or sail, will naturally move with wind and currents regardless of whether sails are up, or a motor is running. When you want to park, and a dock isn't available to lash to, you drop anchor.

A sampling of only *some* types of anchors

Anchors come in many shapes, sizes, and purposes. Most ships will carry more than one anchor, and more than one *type* of anchor. Even deep at sea, when reaching the bottom of the ocean is just too impractical, a "parachute" type of sea anchor can slow, and maintain a ships attitude. An anchor is usually selected to match the ship, and the expected conditions. For example, a 40-foot sailboat expecting sandy-bottom conditions will most certainly have different anchors than, say, The U.S.S Constiution, or a Carrier that's expecting a rocky bottom.

"Something for everyone". Sometimes, bigger isn't better.

So, the overall purpose of this post? Just some simple sampling of he overall nautical world, and ships in general, but for Pirate 101, we can expect the "one anchor to rule them all" to be just fine for our pirating purposes. So, while we wait, keep your eyes on the prize, and become a more well-rounded pirate. ;)

Be Thee Well!