Hard to believe. We were in St. Augustine on a mooring ball in the north field for 3 nights. After a couple of days of cloudy weather Monday broke clear and slightly cooler. We got out and did some sight seeing and as we returned to the boat in the afternoon waves were breaking over the dinghy bow and I had to slow down. Didn't think much of it. That evening I grilled fish for dinner and stowed the dinghy since we planned on leaving early the next morning. After dinner we were inside and noticed the waves seemed to be getting larger and the boat was getting a bit uncomfortable to be on. I went out side and couldn't believe the wind, I estimated it to be a steady 25-30 kts with the sea looking like boiling water. It only got worse. By 21:00 we were bouncing around like a cork. I went outside to check our mooring bridle and it was flat out dangerous to be on deck.
When we pick up a mooring and because of the configuration of the boats bow pulpit and the anchors location on the bow roller, I pull the anchor and set it on deck because the mooring bridle chafes against the anchor. As I usually do I placed the delta anchor on a small piece of carpet on deck without securing it. The wide delta anchor is pretty secure under normal conditions. It had now become too rough to secure it so it remained as is. I worried about this all night. The conditons never let up and neither of us got much sleep. We were lucky in that the high wind was effecting the boat greater than the current which is usually significant here and the boat stayed pointed into the wind so the boat did not roll much, just bounced up and down. Because the boat didn't roll much and because of the way I placed the anchor on deck it didn't move. We were very lucky and a lesson learned.
I spent a good part of the night thinking about how I was going to secure the anchor when we left in the morning. To leave the mooring field and in order to navigate around the other boats in the field we would become beam to the seas putting the anchor at risk of rolling around on deck. I also gave some thought about how I was going to release the mooring bridle. It had to be brought back on board because it was long enough to fowl the props.
At day break when I had a good chance to view the situation I decided that I could throw the anchor back in the water and retreive it and the chain back into the windlass and into it's normal configuration.
The bow was rising and falling a good 5-7 ft so Debbie and I spent some time discussing how we would be disengaging from the mooring ball. I placed life jackets on both sides of the sundeck that Debbie could throw me if I fell in. I also had on my inflatable life jacket as did Debbie. We had them on all night.
My biggest concern after releasing from the ball was being blown back into the boats behind us. There were 2 boats only about 150' away. Debbie is just not comfortable operating the boat so I was hoping that I could release the mooring bridle and get back to the helm before we hit a boat. We decided when she saw me release the bridle she would put the engines in idle fwd and that would keep us fwd of the other boats.
We were both tied and a little sea sick but ready to leave. So after discussing every thing I thought could happen including using the emer button on the VHF, we were ready. The wind was blowing so hard communication was not possible.
I worked by way out to the fwd part of the deck and once I sat down it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The boat was not rolling much, just up and down. I timed the location of the boat in relation to the bridle and when there was enough space for the anchor to fall between the bridle I threw it in. Initially it hung up on the biddle but I was able to work it loose. It didn't fall but about 5 feet and then using the windlass I retieved it back into it's stowed position. I looked back at the helm and
Debbie signaled she was ready. I released the starboard side of the bridle from it's cleat and as quick as I could pulled the rope in and carried it back with me to the sundeck. The rope was till connected to the port bow cleat but I didn't want to take the time to release it. I draped the rope over the deck as I carried the bitter end back as far as it would reach. I noticed as soon as I released the bridle the boat turned beam to the wind and seas. Although the boat started to roll more I was back inside the sundeck (and safe) before the rolling got bad. The boat turning beam to the seas also slowed it's backward movement which gave me more time to avoid the boats behind me. With Debbie putting the engines in idle fwd the boat hardly moved aft of the ball by the time I got to the helm. When we got about 200 yards south of the Bridge of Lions (3 minutes after releasing the bridel) conditions were back to normal with calm water.
Several lessons learned: First I had no idea with high winds out of the NE conditions could be so bad on the north mooring field. It makes sense though, the field faces the St. Augustine inlet only about a mile away. The south mooring field we noticed as we passed was calm.
Second, I alway tie the anchor down when it sits on deck.