Story and Photos by David H. Lyman
If you are reading this issue, you’re probably in the Caribbean, aboard your own boat, glued to the NOAA hurricane forecast site (www.nhc.noaa.gov) wondering when the next disturbance will come through your anchorage. It’s hurricane season—last year’s was bad enough.
If you are a boat owner stateside, anywhere along the Gulf or East Coast of the US, you should be just as concerned.
What’s a boat owner to do? Here are a few things to consider from one who has survived a few hurricanes.
- Dig out and read your insurance policy.
- Have a chat with your insurance agent, converse with your local marina operator, or head to the bar and ask what others are doing.
- Check the storm gear stored under the forward bunk. Read that hurricane plan you wrote up last year.
Get Out of the Way
First, consider a haulout at the local yard, but that entails jack-stands, tie-down straps, a hurricane pit, and removing the mast. That’s a lot of money.
It’ll cost you less to just get out of the way on your own bottom. Today’s forecasts (if the crew at NHC still has a job) are good enough to give you at least three days to up-anchor and skedaddle. At six knots, you can sail 400 miles away from the predicted path.
But where to anchor? Up a river, in a sheltered bay, in the lee of a protected cove? Hurricane holes are now scarce, as many anchorages are full of boats on permanent moorings.
If you find yourself caught and a storm is bearing down, you may just have to stay where you are. What then?
There was a time in the islands when the mangroves were considered safe places to secure your boat. Not so now, as evidenced by the carnage Beryl caused in the mangrove in Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou.
Hurricane Hole at the eastern end of St. John was once a popular place, but not now. The US Park Service has placed it off limits as a hurricane hole.
When Hurricane Hugo came through the Virgin Islands in 1989, the mangroves in Hurricane Hole looked like a boat show, with yachts tucked in cheek-by-jowl. Following Hugo, not one of those 50 or more boats came through unscathed. Many were smashed beyond recognition; others were holed and sunk. With yachts packed in so tight, the boats did more damage to each other than did the storm.
I took one look at the scene and elected to anchor Afaran, my 41-foot Lord Nelson cutter, nearby in the middle of Coral Bay. Afaran and I rode out the 140-knot gusts on my own ground tackle: a 60-pound CQR on chain and a 20-foot snubbing line and a 90-pound Fisherman on 30 feet of chain, attached to two 5/8th nylon rodes, one slacker than the other.
There were over 50 yachts anchored around me in Coral Bay when Hugo arrived — 12 hours later, as Hugo left the house, Afaran was one of only five boats still riding to their anchors. The beach and mangroves were littered with wrecked hulls, masts toppled, and crews wandering around in a daze.
When I acquired Afaran, I outfitted her for any eventual storms. I stowed that 90-pound Fisherman storm anchor under the forward bunk, along with 300 feet of new, 5/8th twisted nylon rope, plus 30 feet of chain, shackles, seizing wire, and chafing gear. I was ready.
The earlier hurricane, Emily, came along in September 1987. We were on our way south to the Caribbean and had stopped in Bermuda, where we rode out Emily on the ground tackle I’d stowed away. I’d use it again and again.
Anchors and Systems
If you can’t get out of the way, or haul out, that leaves anchoring.
Look for an anchorage in a lee with a short fetch. Swells and breaking seas are more dangerous than the wind, as they make the boat hobbyhorse, shock-loading the rodes, chain, anchors, and deck fittings. Find an anchorage with a nice sandy beach to leeward, not a rocky ledge—in case you do drag ashore. Strip off the sails and clear the decks.
One or two anchors? How about three? Plow, Spade, Bruce, Rocna, Fisherman, and Luke — the debate goes on at the bar. While anchor design has improved over the years, no anchor will compensate for sloppy anchoring technique. So do it right. Tie-wrap the shackles, deploy the anchor(s), let them set, then back down, hard, to dig them in. Since you are in the Caribbean, where the water is clear and warm, there’s no excuse for not diving to inspect the bottom and the set of those anchors.
Buoy each anchor with an empty water jug so no one will anchor in front of you, then drag down and foul your gear.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Nicely anchored, now what could go wrong?
Anchor rodes chafe through, the line parts, and the boat is blown on the rocks; the anchor drags due to poor holding ground, short scope, or the anchor is too small, too light, or not deployed properly. Other boats come adrift and drag down, becoming entangled with your boat, sending both boats to the beach. Tied to a dock, the lines snap, and the boat pounds itself to death on the pilings. Tied off in the mangroves with 20 other boats around, they all wind up smashed.
What can we do about this?
Anchor Rodes
Your working anchor rode may lose half its effective load rating in as little as two summers in the sun. Brand new, good-quality nylon rope is recommended for storm conditions. The new high-quality line has more lubrication incorporated during its manufacturing, reducing internal friction and making the line easier to handle. Keep your storm rode hidden below decks, out of the sun, until it’s needed.
Anchor Rode Chafe
There are two types of chafe: external and internal. External chafe is caused by the nylon rode, or snubbing line, rubbing on a deck chock as it stretches out and recoils. To prevent this issue, there are a number of remedies. Commercial chafe gear is available, or use a length of water hose, a length of leather sewn in place, reinforced radiator hose, or a T-shirt.
There’s a problem with each of these, as they may contribute to another and equally serious issue — internal chafe. As the nylon line stretches and recoils, the internal fibers rub against each other, generating enough heat to weaken and melt the line, which then parts. Chafe gear may prevent external chafe but also prevents rain or spray from cooling and lubricating the fibers, resulting in internal chafe.
It’s better to keep nylon lines in the water, but how?
Additional Chafe Protection
Recently, I came up with a solution that solves both external and internal chafing problems. Don’t deploy a nylon rode or a nylon snubber from the deck.
Anchor Chain Snubber
Make up a short anchor snubber; 10 to 20 feet should do. Splice thimbles in both ends to accommodate chain hooks. Now, normal chain hooks have a tendency to slip off unless secured with tie-wraps. Both Mantus and Suncor sell chain hooks for snubbers that are designed to stay put. Make up a spare snubber while you’re at it.
While on the deck, attach the chain hooks securely to the chain, with a few feet of slack chain between the hooks. Deploy the chain over the side so the nylon is partially submerged. This will reduce the shock loading while keeping the snubber cool and lubricated. You always haul in the chain and reposition the snubber.
Anchor Rode Snubber
If riding to a nylon rode, attach a length of chain leading from a deck fixture, through a deck chock or roller, and over the side for about 10 feet. To the end of this chain will be attached a large shackle, to which the anchor rode will be secured. The chain then takes up the load, relieving the stress on the rode as it comes on deck. This keeps more of the nylon rode in the water.
Working on deck, attach the nylon rode to the large shackle, using two turns around the shackle to form a hitch (see photo). This can only be done with the shackle removed from the chain. Then, attach the shackle to the end of the snubber chain, and deploy both chain and the rode until the chain takes the load.
Bring the lazy end of the rode back aboard and secure to a cleat. Keep some tension on the lazy end, to keep the hitch from slipping. This way, you can always haul the rode and chain on deck and unwind the hitch to remove or adjust the shackle.
The chain takes up the load at the deck chock, eliminating external chafe at the chock. With the rode now completely in the water, internal chafe is eliminated. (Warning: I’ve not tested this under extreme conditions.)
Make up the snubber chain and snubber line before the wind pipes up, and practice deploying them.
Once you have prepared your boat for a hurricane, get off and hunker down ashore. Let the insurance adjusters deal with the aftermath.
Storm Plan, More Reading
Got one? Your insurance company may want to see it. BOATUS offers a hurricane prep-list for owners.
https://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/boaterprep.asp
The late Caribbean guru Don Street has a lot to say about hurricanes. (https://www.street-iolaire.com)
Hurricane preparation stories by Lyman in Caribbean Compass include:
“Hurricane Survival Strategy”, May 2013, page 22 (https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/may13compass_online.pdf)
“Preparing for a Hurricane,” June 2013, page 27 (https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/june13compass_online.pdf
“Hurricane Comin” series, a detailed version of Lyman’s survival of Hurricane Hugo, appeared in Caribbean Compass in a three-part series from May to July 2020.
May 2020, page 20 (https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/may20compass_online.pdf)
June 2020, page 22 (https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/june20compass_online.pdf)
July 2020, page 25 (https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/july20compass_online.pdf)
A condensed version of Lyman’s story about surviving Hurricane Hugo was published in Cruising World magazine in 2024 (https://www.cruisingworld.com/people/riders-on-the-storm)
