Ode to the Spade

Well we have just come through another one of those stone days, well it was actually a night but it seemed to go on for ever. We had listened to the weather forecast, it was going to be a Northeasterly with heavy rain, winds gusting 25- 35 Knots, not to bad. We decided to head over to a little place called Assassination Cove and hide behind the headland from the wind. Next we get a forecast of 25 gusting 50 Knots, well we decided to put a bit more chain out. Then the forecast changes again, winds of 45-55 knots, at least they got the direction right. So we readied ourselves for the blow, Monday was a pretty blustery day with the winds steadily increasing, by late afternoon they would have been up to the 30-35 knot mark, so we waited. At about sunset the winds started increasing again, we decided that it would probably be better if one of us was on watch, so we took turns at 3 hour watches.
 The wind became gusty and we really started to pull up on our anchor and chain, Kabuki would be buffeted from one side to the other, each time pulling out to the full extent of her fetch on the chain. The wind was whipping up the wind driven chop, sending spume flying past us loaded with bright phosphorescence. Further out in the bay our old mate the Ripipipi (Ipipiri) was dancing from side to side on her anchor. The sound of the wind in the rigging was a constant moan, as it reverberated down the side stays and into the boat. That is the one thing I find hard to cope with, the constant noise of wind, flapping covers and moaning (no not mine). After doing hourly checks on our position, and scans of the boat for anything loose, the rest of your watch was taken up with staring out the back hatch watching the chaos of it all. Unfortunately sleep was out of the question on our off watch, there was just too much noise and motion.
It is amazing how adaptable humans can be, how many people at any one time are out living/cruising on a boat and putting up with these conditions. In our bay alone on that night there was 11 yachts and 2 small launches, and a 60ft motor launch as well as the small cruise ship Ipipiri. I can only imagine how it would be at sea in a 50knot blow, with swells and wind waves....... In fact I don't think I will think about it. We all come back for more though don't we, this is not the first gale Paul and I have sat out on Kabuki, we have encountered similar conditions out at Great Barrier, Whangaroa and in the Bay of Islands. Admittedly we think this may have been the worst so far.
We can only put our safety down to our anchoring tackle. We have a 35lb Spade anchor ( hence the title) with 280 feet of 8mm chain. We use a 14mm Nylon rope as a snubber on our chain, this provides a shock absorber to the strains on the chain. We always anchor with 100 feet of chain if the depth is 25 feet or less, some would say that is overkill in 15 feet of water, but hey... we don't go anywhere. When we first got Kabuki we anchored out at Great Barrier in a strong wind, with 60 feet of chain in 15 feet of water on a mud bottom, we dragged and nearly hit a boat moored behind us. Since then we have always put out 100 feet as our minimum. For this particular blow we were anchored in a depth (at high tide) of 22 feet, on a mud bottom, with 150 feet of chain out. We did not drag an inch. In fact when Paul pulled up the chain this morning, we had to motor forward to break the hold of the anchor in the mud...... What a good feeling.

This is a photo of our anchor/snubber set up. We have a heavy weight block hanging from the end of the Bowsprit which is used to lead the snubber down to the chain, as you can see the strain is being taken up by the snubber line.