After a vey peaceful evening and marinated chicken on the grill we settled in to watch TV. We are only 35 miles from Miami so the over the air HDTV is crisp and clear. All of a sudden we hear all kinds of things rattling outside. I look outside and we had switched directions 180 degrees at anchor in a matter of minutes. It was pitch black outside. The wind was howling. The skies open up with driving rain. Mitch called and said he was dragging anchor. I started my engines and tried to keep from dragging but it was too late. I was dragging anchor and being blown toward the island. I tried to drag the anchor and the boat into deeper water but the wind was too strong to make any headway. I thought I was aground because all progress stopped and I was very close to shore. I knew I needed to get the anchor reeled in if I had any hope of moving. I attach a safety line to the anchor chain when anchoring to take the strain off of the windlass. I left the helm to cut the safety line and when I did that the rest of the anchor chain and 150' of anchor rope feed through the windlass and did not quite get to the bitter end of the rode as it knotted up just before that to keep it from paying out any farther. I knew then that the anchor had caught and was now set solidly but now the boat was rapidly heading to the mangroves and shallow water. I applied starboard reverse engine throttle to keep from going aground. Up to 2500 rpms at time. That kept my stern out from shore. How deep was the water?. Don't know because the reverse thrust kept the depth sounder from reading. I do know that we anchored in 9' of water before being blown towards shore. This was a slow moving storm--looking at the Nexrad radar it looked like there was one wave of red cells coming after the other. So I sat there at the helm until 1am with the starboard engine in reverse. About 2am the wind shifted so that I was held away from the shallow water by the wind and I was able to shut the engines down. Judy and I took turns the rest of the evening on watch but I didn't sleep much.
By morning the winds calmed and we were well off the island. It was time to reel in the anchor line. Would the windlass work? Yes! The anchor had dug itself (must have been buried 3') and it was difficult to retrieve but it had caught in about 5' of water. All was well after taking a test ride. Only damage was to the anchor roller where it bent the 1/4" stainless steel.
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| Bent bow pulpit on Silver Foxes |
Lands End II :. Mitch, Barb, and John weren't quite so lucky. After their anchor started dragging, unable to see in the darkness and the rain they soon were aground near shore. Mitch was able to retrieve his anchor successfully but with the wind howling he could not get off. He was hard aground and thumping up against what he thought was rocks. TowBoat US arrived about 10:30pm. No guarantees he said but he would try to pull him off. An 18' enclosed boat with a 150hp outboard. Soon I saw the lights move slowly, another pause and then the slow but sure movement away from shore. Success! They pulled him out into deep water somewhat in the lee of the island where he set his anchor. While being towed to the anchorage his saga was not over. The dinghy strap broke dropping one end of the dingy in the water (Dinghy & motor are okay Hank!). Also the Weber Q grill blew off the flybridge into the cockpit nearly hitting Barb. Not much sleep for the Lands End II crew either
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