Weathering a Storm - These Compacs Are tough!

[HideAway]

Yall got two minutes to untie and get away from my boat  Dan announced from his Pearson Wanderer - so we and a 28 something or other cast off and dropped anchors a few hundred feet away from each other.   We barely got the anchor set when our flat calm gunkhole got rowdy.  NWS reported 50 mph gusts during this one.   Mullet Key - at the mouth of Tampa Bay a couple of weeks ago.

http://youtu.be/iMIGAcTXpkQ     

[chas5131]

A friend who moved to the Tampa area to sail quickly learned about pop-up thunderstorms. 
Those storms keep a lot of people from sailing there in the summer.

[skip1930]

These boats will take more than the crew can.
And that's a good thing.

I have two Danforth's good enough for the U.S. Navy.

skip.

[Pamelina]

Enjoyed the video. Good job! BTW, what anchor do you use?

[Koinonia]

Good boat and a good anchor are great, On Koinonia there is a 26lb primary danforth rated for a 40ft boat with a 25lb bruce secondary.  I like to be able to sleep well at night but then you always have to keep an eye on that guy with the dinky ground tackle that always has to anchor just upwind of you.

[Billy]

A friend who moved to the Tampa area to sail quickly learned about pop-up thunderstorms. 
Those storms keep a lot of people from sailing there in the summer.

I fall into that category. This is my "off" season. But no so much because of the pop up storms, but the heat and lack of wind before and after.

[HideAway]

We have a danforth anchor that is rated for about 5k.  The next larger one was too heavy for Linda to lift -- by the way it's her choice to bring up the anchor - We use a 1/2 inch rode -  Way over sized but I sleep better and the danforth has never dragged.  Most of our sailing area is sand and or sea grass so the danforth holds well.  For years after we sold the Sea Pearl we used its anchor and successfully dragged it across many gunkholes & bays until I had a  DUH moment and got a larger anchor.  We have another slightly smaller danforth for the stern but seldom have to use it.   A lot of folks use a bruce anchor but without a bow sprit its too much bother. 

Most of the sea breeze storms are not as severe as that one.  We usually wait until 2 or even 3 pm  to sail in summer because the sea breeze is so sweet.  Sometimes it lasts well into the night as it did on this cruise.  The coolest place on HideAway during the hot afternoon was down below with the wind scoop up.

I ll have more on the Great Mullet Key Cruise in a later blog and at least one other video about finding our way into Bunce s pass - it is not marked or sounded and it s very shallow even way off shore.   Matt

[Koinonia]

on my previous 34ft boat I has a 30lb bruce primary on a bow roller, for added security I had an extra bruce with abour 20ft of chain that I would shackle to the back of the primary bruce.  With this the secondary always had a direct pull which never got yanked upwards when wave action kicked in.  It help in about a 20knot wind with another 34ft boat rafted to one side and another 37ft boat rafted to the other side.  That secondary could really be any tpye of anchor you want so you could mix and match for whatever bottom you have. As for the primary most bruce and plow anchors have a hole that you can shackle to in the back, also nice when you anchor in snag prone areas so you can have a retrieval line tied to the back with a float to pull it backwards.  The lake Im on has a ton of stumps great for stealing anchors on the bottom!