SPECIAL REPORT
When my toes get cold, I know the wind has piped up. The dorade over the foot of our bed only seems to move air when it’s blowing over 20 knots, and that night it was working overtime. As the wind howled through our rigging, I pulled the blanket back over my feet and struggled to fall back asleep as Agàpe was battered by high winds and driving rain.
The next morning, after three days confined to the boat with 35+ knot winds, I finally decided I'd had enough. I would escape for a swim under the pretence of checking our anchor, but as I swam forward, my anxiety for the safety of our boat grew. I could see that even though we had a scope of 7:1 out, all of our 10mm chain was suspended in the water column.
I'd always believed that the weight of our chain was instrumental in our anchor’s holding power, but now, watching as the wind gusted into the high 30s, the boat pulled the chain taut, and any assistance of a catenary effect added by the chain’s weight was lost. But still, the anchor did not move. Even when the
