Yeah, we did this a couple of times, once in 2001 and just recently in Sept 2009. Here are some good ideas on how to anchor to survive a hurricane on the hook.
1. Pick an anchorage that has no or very little fetch. We anchored in the same anchorage for both hurricanes and the fetch was only 150 yards. Even at 100 knots the waves were insignificant.
1. Pick an anchorage that has no or very little fetch. We anchored in the same anchorage for both hurricanes and the fetch was only 150 yards. Even at 100 knots the waves were insignificant.
2. Pick an anchorage that has few other boats. Probably the biggest danger is other boats dragging down on you or fouling your anchor. There is no safety in numbers in a hurricane situation.
3. We feel the best anchor set-up is what is referred to as “tandem” anchoring. That is a second anchor placed in the middle of the rode between the main anchor and the boat. We use a similar method except we use a 40-pound weight (kellet) in place of the second anchor. No kellet? No Problem! You can use a burlap bag full of rocks or a bag of chain; any weight that is equal or greater than your main anchor will do.
4. Rig a second emergency anchor on deck complete with chain, rode, and chafing gear ready to deploy if needed. Make sure that you flake the rode to run freely.
We feel it is a mistake to deploy two anchors on separate rodes. First, they can become tangled if the wind shifts, second if one drags it could foul the other anchor and third we would rather not put all we have in the water but keep one in reserve.
If you have to anchor on chain/rode combination tie or splice a second rode directly to the chain as a back up.
5. Put a nice big anchor marker on your primary anchor. If someone drags they will know where your anchor is located and can make attempts to avoid it.
6. Set your anchor in 25 to 30 feet of water. If you anchor in too shallow water you are more prone to dragging because of decreased chain cantenary.
7. Set a double snubber with chafe gear at least 15 feet long and mouse the chain hook to the chain. The snubber must be long enough to be able to stretch. A fifteen-foot snubber will stretch about 2 feet. Then closer to the boat install a back-up snubber of the same length in case the primary breaks.
8. Have on the foredeck: extra chafing gear, various shackles, mousing wire, pliers, serrated knife, extra snubbing line, gloves, and some small diameter line.
Remove the chain completely from the windlass and wrap it around a big post if you have one otherwise loosen the chain gypsy on the windless and install a short snubber at that point. If you leave the gypsy tightened and the worst happens (all the snubbers fail) you don’t want the windlass flying off the deck taking a piece of the deck with it.
9. Take your roller furled sails off, off, off! You can either remove the main or put the cover on and wrap it tightly with line.
10. Try to stow as much windage as possible below and tie everything on deck down. Don’t forget to remove those flags!
11. We recommend leaving the dodger up for two reasons; one if you have to get out there and drive the boat then you will need the protection; two it will keep the interior much drier as you go up to check the anchor gear.
12. Make sure you have some long sleeve clothing and a dive mask to protect yourself for when you go forward to check the anchor. Wind driven rain at 100 knots is similar to flying gravel.
Below deck preparations
1. Secure everything below like you are going on a passage. Get the towels out but keep two in a plastic bag so when it is all over you have at least two dry towels. Make some sandwiches. Be ready to find lots of new leaks. Have flashlights and spotlights charged or with good batteries. Turn on your masthead and anchor lights. You want to be seen.
2. Set a mark on your GPS and set the anchor alarm, it is the only way you will know for sure if you are dragging at night. If you have more than 1 GPS then do it on both of them. What we do is set a mark then make that mark a GoTo mark. The GPS will tell you the distance to the mark. Just keep an eye on the distance. It will change as the boat clocks back and forth but the distance will fall into a predictable range. If you start to drag the distance will increase very quickly then it will be time for your fire drill.
Check our personal blog Svmitakuuluu.blogspot.com to read about our last hurricane experience.
