Paz: The area under the front deck where the anchor rope disappears into is the chain locker. You should have access to the chain locker from inside the boat. A tip for you: be careful that you don't feed a lot of weeds, mud and "muck" on the anchor line into the chain locker as it is located just in front of your Vee-berth and the aroma of rotting delta weeds is not pleasant.....
The rope/chain (or anchor rode, as it is properly referred to) exits the chain locker through the "hawser pipe", a metal flange.
The windlass, if you have one, would be mounted directly above the hawser pipe. The anchor line, either chain or rope, will pass over the top of the "gypsy" (the pulley that grips the rope and pulls it) and feed directly into the chain locker. Some windlass also have an additional gypsy drum that will allow you to manually tail a line. Some windlass configurations are mated to the hawser pipe as a single unit.
If there is any sort of "latch" or pin as part of the bow roller / guide it is for securing the anchor in place and NOT for holding the line while at anchor. While it is tempting, it is not a good idea to leave the anchor line held by the windlass, you should cleat the line to the bow cleat.
As for Mildred: that is my usual hangout! Last weekend had very light winds so it was not a test of the anchor although I am sure it was good practice.
There are four spots where I would enter Mildred in a ski boat, three that I would take my shallow draft houseboat through and two that I used when I had my 36' Carver.
As Upperdecker said the deepest entrance is in the northeast corner, whihc is the site of the orginal levee break. Apparently the current surge from the break dug it out really deep because you will find depths of around 40', which is about 20 feet deeper than any of the surrounding area.
There is a very wide entrance at the south end which is deep enough in most spots.... Notice the word "most". The problem is that this entrance gets a little wider every year as the levee continues to crumble. The spot that opened up 10 years ago is deep enough. The spots that broke down two years ago is not. Like Upperdecker said, approach it, shift to neutral and coast across. Watch your depth sounder, you will see the bottom come up, then drop off again.
Last weekend I noticed a few good sized tree trunks that were poking out of the water in places they were not at previously. These can move around so be careful. There is an orchard of mostly submerged trees at the north end and another deep in the cove at the southwest, stay clear of those.
Paz, where do you keep your boat?
I am at Tiki Lagun, C dock, big houseboat closest the launch ramp....
Rod
