Bahamian Moor

After such a restless night I was desperate to get our anchoring arrangement a little more secure and reduce the swinging radius.  Somewhere in the distant past when I was dreaming about sailing and reading everything I could lay my hands on on the topic, I had come across the concept of a “Bahamian Moor“: two anchors with the boat moored in between. I suspect it would have been in one of Hal Roth’s books.

Anyway… As I was still carrying the 36lb Lewmar Delta anchor that came with the boat and 20 metres of 10 mm chain,  I decided to have a go.  First I had to re-position the primary bower (a 60lb Manson Supreme).  I could not do this without Gilli’s help as it was still gusting 25 knots.  It was hairy as it was nearly low tide, but (me driving and Gilli working the windlass) we managed to get the anchor secured without ending up on the sand bank or colliding with another boat.  I shackled the secondary chain to the primary, veered an extra 20 metres of chain  and took the anchor out with the dinghy.

Once the second anchor was in, I winched us the 20 metres back towards the primary anchor, tightening the chain between the two anchors. The result: a swinging radius equal to a mooring! The screenshot shows the new swinging track (yellow) over the previous 36 hours (grey).

As an added bonus the boat is now unable to sail around the anchor as it did last night.