All this writing of anchoring brings to mind our new loves, often called marriage saving headsets. These are wireless, lightweight sets made by Eartec. Full duplex allows simultaneous talking. They aren’t completely wireless though. A wire connects the low profile head-piece to the transceiver unit which you clip to your belt or stick in a pocket and hope it doesn’t fall out. Bet the next generation is Bluetooth for total wireless-ness!
We’d heard good things about these sets, from fellow cruisers as well as the Siegels on m/v aCapella (the creators of ActiveCaptain) who wrote about their experience. During our ordering from Defender frenzy in Vero we bit the bullet and got a set since they were on sale. They use rechargeable batteries which are soldered in to the transceiver and you just plug the whole thing in to a charger.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t pushing to add one more thing to our inventory of stuff on board. We managed quite well thank you using hand signals and the occasional wild gesturing, yet at times they’d be not simply marriage saving, but anchor chute saving!
Russ wearing the Master headset.
Lori sports the Remote set- better name would be Commander!
The first few times I forgot I could talk and was still doing the hand signaling more than verbalizing. Once I got the hang of it, I have to admit that I do love these sets, aka talking heads. Even the wind doesn’t interfere with clear and clean communication and they’ve taken our anchoring choreography from satisfying to incredible. 🙂 Don’t need them when we raise anchor unless we’re dealing with a lot of wind and then Russ can give me better directions on how much throttle is needed to keep us straight-on to the chain as it comes up. As an unexpected bonus, the sets help when we drop the main, a process that requires many “go lefts” and “go rights” as we work to get it down inside the lazy jacks and stack pack. Guess we’ll find them useful when docking too. Directions given to me by the dockhands can be relayed to Russ who can’t hear them. With only a few weeks of use we can say that the money was well spent; they are comfortable and easy to use, deliver perfect clarity and our anchoring looks better than ever! Makes me feel a bit like a yachtie.
Cruising along the East Coast and Bahamas 
We have used headsets ever since we set out on OWT. I agree with you; they are a GREAT way to communicate. It certainly prevents your anchoring antics from becoming the entertainment in the anchorage! Yours look even better than ours which are bulky and have been known to almost fall off (thankfully we are good at catching them) when we bend over. We’ve never been able to use ours for lowering the main although we’ve used the for engine repairs – Ross in the cabin and me at the helm following start/stop instructions. We’ll definitely have to take a look at the kind you have. Not sure though if we can get them now before we head west . . . .
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Now i wonder how we lived withou them 🙂 but we still use a combo of handsignals and that works really well. Good thought on using them for repair work. Guess they will come in handy.
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