We used a "stern tie" for the first time yesterday as we made our anchorage in Blind Bay. It was all new to me, but as you can see from the photo we secured the back of the boat to the shore in addition to deploying the anchor from the bow of the boat as is normal. I was drafted as the crewmember to take the dinghy out to shore and make the connection. This was made more exciting by the fact that a fellow boater had warned us that a bear cub had been seen on shore as we entered the little cove.
In the photo you might be able to see two spools of line. The small spool contains a strong but light rope that is used to pull in the heavier floating propylene stern tie rope once this heavier rope was looped around a post or tree on shore. It sounds simple but as a newbie it was a little complex taking both diameter lines out in a rocking dinghy and looping the larger rope around a tree and then attaching the smaller rope to it in order for Rod and Kaye to haul it back to the boat. With the front of the Quijote anchored traditionally and the boat keeping tension on the anchor line (engine in reverse at low RPM) the stern lie was tightened up snugly.
A stern tie is not only very secure, it also ensures the boat does not "swing" around its anchor. This allows more boats to "fit" into a small anchorage and is a very common anchoring technique in Europe so I am told. It worked well for us and we were able to simply haul in the stern tie the next morning without another trip in the dinghy to retrieve it.
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