Wed, Feb 10, 2010 - Key West, FL

The wind was still blowing strong at sunrise. In the daylight we could see that we weren’t the only ones who had encountered difficulties last night. There was a sailboat across the channel near Tank Island that looked like it had hit something and sank – it was in the water up to its gunwales. There were also a couple of boats blown up on the shore and one or more that had to be pulled off the reef. We could see three or four larger boats turned sideways to the wind which had to be very uncomfortable. They must have had stern anchors out and when the wind did its “180” it left them at the mercy of the sea.

We remained on the boat all day because of the rough water and strong winds. We made some phone calls, looked at charts and did some reading. Later in the morning, Gale called West Marine to make sure they had the anchor, chain, line and other supplies he would need to replace the lost items. In visiting with Larry at West Marine, Gale found out that the Delta anchors do not work here in Key West. The bottom consists of about a foot of mud on top of hard clay and all they do is plow through the water. The Danforth or Fortress-type anchors that we set out last night when we re-anchored were the appropriate anchors for these parts.