2-15-17 Anchor gives way in wind.

We were safely anchored and are now on day three.  We saw a 50-foot sport fisher name Bounty Hunter heading our way.  They were going through the area we were concerned with the depth in our dinghy. However, It was high tide now they may be okay.  We turned on our radio in case they had issues.  Surprisingly they made it into our anchorage and started to anchor. Scott radioed them asking it they would like help putting out their second anchor with the dinghy.  They declined.  They took multiple stabs at it and finally they said on the radio they were going to do what we had done. The wind was howling and voices were raised both for sound and out of frustration.

Our observations:  1)Little or no chain, 2) captain backed down on the anchor too fast not letting it dig in deeply 3) they didn’t put out enough rode(rope) 4) too much testosterone on the boat- 3 men. What communication there was, wasn’t very constructive. 5) being stubborn and not accepting our help.

After several more tries they finally settled. We watched them carefully because if their anchor let loose they could easily hit us.  Thankfully the guy in the orange shirt was on the bow checking thing often.  That made us feel better.

The wind kicked up  even more during the night and we could hear yelling again.  Scott and I are both up now. Their anchors must have given way and they had the engine running and lots of bright lights on and were trying desperately to re-anchor for hours.

At first light they left.  We saw them move to another spot. It looked like they were rocking pretty good.  Next thing we know they were gone (not surprising) We think they are anchored on the other side of the island as we can see an anchor light sticking up.

We truly felt sorry for them. But were proud of ourselves for taking anchor classes. Buying the extra chain, rode and a better anchor.  We have been through some storms and so far, we have held.  Someday it will happen. But we take every precaution and have done due diligence to be prepared.

Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well either, but that’s OK we are still stuck here with the wind howling and safe.

The worst part is not having easy access to weather.  In order to get to our phones weather  apps on but there was no signal. We are not picking up any Bahama weather on our radio just Florida in bits and pieces Not enough to help.. We knew before we headed here that the wind  was going to last several days and we are thankful we are in a decent spot to ride it out.   Until it breaks we are prepared to stay right here out of harm’s way as long as Bounty Hunter doesn’t come back.

Thanks for reading,

Scott and Karen

PS Bounty Hunter was from Seaview, IOW. We have since learned that is Isle of Wight. a small island off of England.  The had very strong english accents

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