Your anchor has many uses. From the obvious, keeping your vessel secured to the ground, so it doesn’t float away, to the not so obvious of keeping your vessel from straying into danger.

Once you’ve found your slice of heaven on the lake, how do you keep your boat in place? Easy, just lower the anchor over the side, make sure it’s got a good grip on the bottom of the pond, then open the cooler and proceed to make generous quantities of fruity drinks with those adorable little umbrellas in ‘em.

Once you’ve found that secluded inlet you’ve been looking for, dropping the anchor will help hold your boat in place. The anchor rode (line, line and chain, or chain) connects the anchor to the boat.