Storms at Anchor 02/17/13

 Thought you might like a taste of being on anchor.  This is a subject that every cruiser touches on from day to day – What size is your anchor?  How does it hold?  Do you have rode or chain?  How much scope do you put out?  The questions and importance of anchoring is unlimited!

Last night saw the storm arrive that was the big talk of the previous week.  Our plans for moving down the chain were all predicated by this front.  25-30 knots from the north with possible strong westerly’s before its arrival – not a good direction for Exuma anchoring.  And that’s how the thought process goes for life aboard. 

We were coming across the one mile stretch from Georgetown on our dinghy when the clouds started moving across the sky.  Not a good feeling being so exposed with such distance to go and running ahead of a massive cloud bank with obvious rain pelting down just behind it.  The boat hatches were open and we were vulnerable!  We got to the boat just as the rain shot bullets at us and I ran around deck throwing hatches closed and taking cover.  That ended up being just a warning, the winds died back quickly and we wondered if it was all a hoax! 

The rest of the afternoon was spent checking the anchor lines, the proximity of all the boats around us and comparing lengths and type of their anchor systems.  Boats were moving from here to there and setting and resetting trying to get their position and hold before the sun went down. 

Rob and I found ourselves well set and happy with our anchor but not completely comfortable with the over 40’ catamaran just off our starboard bow that was truly too close for comfort.  There was noone aboard the cat to make matters worse and we were quite concerned that when the wind clocked, we’d be directly behind them with only 80 or so feet to spare! 

Thankfully, they arrived back before sunset to tell us they’d been set in that spot securely for almost two months and had a great hold – with basic supervision, we should have nothing to worry about!  The sunset brought the real storm with high winds and higher gusts and we had a good “ride”.

Here’s a good place to think about how anchoring works.  When you enter an anchorage, you have to pick your spot.  There are lots of factors to this equation – What is the tide doing?  How strong is the wind?  Where is land protection – land stops the big waves from coming in.  Is anyone on rope vs chain (which perform completely different)?  Where will boats be when the wind or tide shifts?  As the shifts happen, every boat swings around its anchor and ends up in a totally different position relative to the boats around it.  It certainly complicated the decision!

The radio was busy through the night with people helping people – someone’s dinghy let loose and went walkabout, people’s anchors were dragging and drifting, other folks were lending aid and giving advice.  Our cruising buddy, Rick’s, anchor dragged and Rob headed over in the mess to help get him resettled.  It was a busy and wild night.

I’m happy to report that all is well this morning.  I, surprisingly, even got some sleep!  Most nights like this I get myself too worked up to barely shut my eyes but I must be becoming seasoned!  We left the radio on and set the anchor drag on the chart plotter.  We watched the wind, waves and neighbors until about midnight then gave in to sleep.

The winds are now clocking north and then east and our protection from Stocking Island is increased although we’re going to see up to 30 knots for the next three days.  Books, cards, blogs and projects will abound!