Captain K, to answer your questions....where we had dropped the anchor initially was fairly close to the north shore of that bay. At that time the light winds were out of the north so I dropped the hook then backed down to set it well. When the wind shifted and we turned around 180 degrees, we were too close to the north side of the bay for my comfort level. There wasn't enough room between us and the bank to let out more scope, plus we were pulling on the anchor in the opposite direction of what we had set it.
I thought about staying in the bay because we had anchored there to have dinner. When the rains started coming down HARD and the winds picked up I decided to head for home rather than set the anchor. I probably could easily stayed there and kept the bow pointed upwind but, with the lightening strikes right in that immediate area I felt it was a better choice to be out on the wide open river rather than be in narrow, shallow bay. I'd much prefer to ride out a storm in the wider, deeper river than risk the shallow waters.
It was when I first turned to head out of the bay that we were blasted by the wind and it damaged the bimini top.
I got news from the insurance company and it's all good. I have talked with the rep from Travelers three times over the past couple of days and they're going to cover everything, above my deductible.
The canvas that was damaged is going to be fully covered. Since the canvas itself was not torn it is going to be repaired, not replaced, they don't depreciate it at all. There is a plastic cup-shaped track that the bimini canvas slides in and that holds it in place, that is going to be replaced, but that's all. The window where the stitching was torn is going to be fixed, not replaced so again, they're covering the entire cost of the canvas repairs.
On the radar, I have a Furuno 4' open array antenna and Furuno display and am going to replace the antenna with a Raymarine 4' HD open array so the radar signal can be overlayed on top of the GPS plotter.
The insurance company is going to pay for a comparable Furuno antenna, plus the technician's travel time (3.5 hours each way at $40/hour) plus the installation time (estimated at $80/hour for 8 hours).
I'm going to have them install a Raymarine antenna, remove the old Furuno display, and run new cabling to the GPS.
So, the end result of all of this is that I have to pay my deductible but I'm going to get a much better antenna and will be able to overlay the radar image on top of the GPS image.