Anchors

You may think that this is about metaphoric anchors in life. No; this is about anchors.

There are many type of anchors and I really believe it is an interesting topic. The first that comes to mind, at least for me, is a marine anchor - specifically for boats. As a sailor, I have used anchors many times with mixed success. These are used to stop the boat from moving in relation to the seabed, regardless of the effects of current or wind. This may be an overnight stop, a break for lunch, or simply trying to stem the tide when no other power is available; perhaps there is no wind or the engine has failed.

Tankers and large ships use anchors when waiting for ports to be available, or during downtime, crew changes, etc. These anchors must be ultra reliable.

My favourite anchor is the Bruce anchor. They are a patented design and the owner of the patent has focussed on commercial sized anchors in recent years, such that they are not possible to buy new in smaller sizes anymore. Having a favoured design may appear odd, but having spent many nights sleeping in rough conditions knowing the Bruce anchor would hold strong, I can rationalise this eccentricity.

Then there are anchors to hold modern wind farm assets to the ground. These are industrially sized and incredibly effective. Now a multi-millon (no reference, but I assume it is million, perhaps billion) pound industry, these anchors are serious pieces of kit.

Other anchors I can think of is a small fitting that is used by climbers to attach safety lines to as they ascend a route. This keeps them, and their friends below, safe. A different scale to the previous anchors but across the market there is a range of designs, each with differing advantages for different applications and specific features to match the climber's needs.

So overall, anchors are inherently a risky concept. We have learnt that anchoring is essentially the connecting of two things, with potentially dramatic consequences if this connection fails.