# Have you shore camped?



## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

This is for larger boats, I know it's easy for smaller boats and swing keelers.

But say you really like a well sheltered and somewhat well provided campsite on shore of an island or remote shore say like in Maine. Would you be comfortable enough in your ground tackle to go ashore and sleep in the tent and by a campfire as the sun sets behind your mother ship? 

Jus wonnering..


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## Ninefingers (Oct 15, 2009)

Part of fun is risk!!


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

or a very very long leash? or bells on the line? lmao


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## MikeWhy (Apr 22, 2011)

It isn't the ground tackle that's a problem. I happen to like the moat that separates me from the four, six, and eight legged critters and crawlies.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

Denise,

What about anchor watch? I mean, say you peak out of your tent and the boat is halfway out to sea? At least you can do something about that if you're still on it.

I guess the rules about keeping watch don't technically say that you have to be _on_ the boat. 

No. I wouldn't be comfortable unless I had a Southerly that can be beached right next to my tent and I can reach out and touch it.


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## PaulfromNWOnt (Aug 20, 2010)

Around here, we nose up to the rocks, and tie off to trees. If you find the right little nook, it's like being in your slip where the boat is very safe and secure. We also happen to be blessed with some really nice beaches that are close to some of those rocks.


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## tomperanteau (Jun 4, 2009)

*Catalina Island*

We're going to do it this season. I'll post again and tell all how it was.


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## downeast450 (Jan 16, 2008)

Pick your spot carefully. There are many places with good holding and protection along the Maine coast where you should sleep as sound ashore as you do aboard. Where camping ashore is a low risk adventure. With the right location, the right ground tackle and good weather the Maine Island Trail offers us the opportunity to enjoy an occasional island. There are also many attractive island anchorages where I wouldn't be comfortable leaving the boat unattended. I can row, but chasing my boat dragging its anchor isn't a formula for a good night's sleep.

I guess you could always set two anchors. Our boat carries a hook on 90 feet of ht chain. The Rocna 15 is big for our 28 foot, 7000 lb. boat. It holds some good deah! and I sleep well.

Down


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

PaulfromNWOnt said:


> Around here, we nose up to the rocks, and tie off to trees.


Now that I would have no problem doing. I'd trust a solid tree not to move more so than my anchor and our anchor is big for our size boat.

It does sound like fun, though.


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## SVAuspicious (Oct 31, 2006)

I'm not a camping sort of guy, but I certainly have left the boat anchored out overnight without me from time to time. Good ground tackle AND good anchoring technique is critical. 

In some places I feel more confident on my own tackle than on a mooring.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

If I've got all the comforts of boat, I'm not sure I'd want to bother pitching a tent. Either way, the campfire will be out before I go to sleep.


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## CaptainForce (Jan 1, 2006)

SVAuspicious said:


> I'm not a camping sort of guy, but I certainly have left the boat anchored out overnight without me from time to time. Good ground tackle AND good anchoring technique is critical.
> 
> In some places I feel more confident on my own tackle than on a mooring.


I'm with dave here. There are many times that we leave our boat at anchor while we're ashore for as long as one might sleep through the night.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

Denise,

Is this something you are planning to do? Where?


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## Bene505 (Jul 31, 2008)

Double anchor (from the bow) so neither anchor can get it's rode wrapped around it. Then you don't have to worry about wind shifts. When backing down while pulling on both anchors, if the anchor lines go off your bow at greater than 90 degrees apart, then you can't wrap either anchor with it's rode (if both anchors are set.)

We have one chain rode and one nylon rode. I wrap the nylon rode with an old towel to prevent chafe where the two rodes could wind around each other due to wind shifts.

(In our favorite spot, we find there are no bugs 100 yards out, while on shore you get eaten alive.)

Regards,
Brad


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## pdqaltair (Nov 14, 2008)

The ground tackle? If it's not good enough for me to leave the boat, perhaps it is not good enough at all. Hard to say, situation specific.

But on the Chesapeake and Delaware, it's the bugs. I've camped pleanty, but I wouldn't choose a Bay beach.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

I doubt that I'd ever camp on shore with boat and confortable berth anchored a shore dinghy ride away. OTOH, we are seriously thinking of anchoring as far upstream as we can get, then heading further by kayak or dinghy and camping out.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

My love of shore camping comes from the many years of canoe tripping in the Adirondacks and upper Delaware River. I don't suppose to guess anywhere on the Chesapeake lends itself to shore camping anyway. I was just wondering really. Certainly I don't think it's a mid summer activity either! bugs are bad EVERYWHERE! 
next idea.. floating campfire pit! lol


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

deniseO30 said:


> My love of shore camping comes from the many years of canoe tripping in the Adirondacks and upper Delaware River. I don't suppose to guess anywhere on the Chesapeake lends itself to shore camping anyway. I was just wondering really. Certainly I don't think it's a mid summer activity either! bugs are bad EVERYWHERE!
> next idea.. floating campfire pit! lol


Although I understand that on weekends it is a power boat haven, during the week Hart-Miller island in the upper Bay is supposed to be relatively empty and you can anchor and camp on the island. It's a park I believe.


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## emoney (Jun 2, 2010)

If I were to leave my boat to "tent camp", absolutely I'd trust the ground tackle. If she can't stay near the island, what's to say she'll stay anywhere. And, in the right situation, I'd be tying a line off on the nearest sturdy tree to shore anyway. Couple that with an anchor foward and aft, snug as a bug in a rug. Then again, I'd be shocked to find that "if" that would convince me to leave the comfort of "home" (the boat) in the first place. But, since we're "what-iffing".....


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I only camp as a means to an end, where there is no choice and I want to be there: hiking the appalacian trail or at the OshKosh fly in with my son. Can't really imagine why I would stay on the shore and stare at the boat.

However, as I've mentioned in other threads, the Anchor Watch app for my iPad will send an email to my blackberry if she is dragging. Need cell coverage, but I would sleep like a baby.


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## AdamLein (Nov 6, 2007)

Camping is great fun. Spending the night on shore has its advantages, too, especially if you have a large crew on a small boat, or if the head doesn't work so well, or if your dinghy or dinghy access isn't the most comfortable.

I would be interested in trying it, but here's how I see it: on a cruise, you're sort of camping already, just with a semirigid floating plastic tent. The boat has a lot of the things that are nice about a tent (sound of rain on the roof, cozy, open your door in the morning to a forest or beach) already, plus it carries itself and everything else you need with you. In that sense a boat is the ideal tent. So unless your goal is to really rough it, there's not much need to bring a tent along.

As for ground tackle, it should be the least of your concerns.


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## Rozz (Jun 30, 2011)

ive done it, just used two anchors. with kids, its nice for him to run amuck early in the morning while im trying to get some coffee in me


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## tommays (Sep 9, 2008)

It works out well on Lake george Ny as they have many camping islands with BOAT only acess and docks with decent deep water 


We still always had set extra anchors as part of getting the camp sight ready


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

I know if I ever got to Maine I'd be a member of the MITA and be camping and foraging just for the fun!


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

deniseO30 said:


> I know if I ever got to Maine I'd be a member of the MITA and be camping and foraging just for the fun!


Make a plan and do it !! We loved our trip up there this year.

However, you will find thousands of potential anchorages along the Maine coast and up the Bays and rivers. You might not want to waste much time with setting up and breaking down campsites, as there will be way more to take in than you will have a lifetime to sail to. Hopping off for a hike should be a sure thing.


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## SVAuspicious (Oct 31, 2006)

AdamLein said:


> on a cruise, you're sort of camping already, just with a semirigid floating plastic tent.


Oh man.

You're going to need a bigger boat.


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## Sublime (Sep 11, 2010)

SVAuspicious said:


> Oh man.
> 
> You're going to need a bigger boat.


Nah!


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