Somebody asked me what flaking the anchor chain means.  Well, here’s what it looks like once you’ve flaked it all nicely into the anchor locker.  In Mahdee, if we let the anchor chain fall directly from the windlass down into the locker, we’ll end up with a big pile.  Flaking it involves using your hand–or a stick–to guide the chain back and forth across the locker in such a way that it doesn’t build up in a pile in the middle!  Also, when the chain runs out, it hopefully won’t tangle.

Here’s a picture of Mahdee’s 500 ft of nicely flaked chain in the locker:

.