- Face the Wind or current when approaching the planned anchorage area.
- Reduce the ship’s speed up to or less than speed of Windlass Walk-back Capacity (which is generally 0.3 kts of ship’s speed).
- The anchor is then walked back all the way to the seabed.
- As the vessel moves astern the cable will grow.
- Ship’s heading on final approaching should be faced into the Wind and Current which can provide a good advantage to control good ship’s pose (heading) when Anchor just Folding and also for Minimizing of Swinging rate to windward or current-ward.
- Ship’s speed during Walk-back chain must be controlled as “0” with speed over the ground by GPS and/or Doppler Sonar, or less than the speed of Windlass Walk-back Capacity (Speed).
Having established most likely position for the anchor:
confirm the safety of actual anchorage location (length of cable + length of vessel) consider navigation hazards, tidal factors, other vessels, sea state and swell plot bridge (or radar) swinging circles create visual clearing bearings/ radar clearing ranges brief the anchor watch.
Swing-way shall be estimated totally with the following factors
- The character of movement while using an astern engine.
- The character that ships heading turns to windward. This factor is remarkable as in ballast condition
- Drifting value of wind and/or current to lee side This factor is remarkable while ship’s proceeding with low speed.
- The trend of Wind / Current direction which ship’s heading will follow.