Anchor Dragging in Pago Pago

Another excerpt from my cruisingrunner blog (https://cruisingrunner.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/cyclone-pam-and-our-worst-cruising-moments/)

Upon arrival, we found what we thought was a pretty good spot to anchor in a shallow patch near the “marina” with a good view of McDonald’s. The anchor set the first time and held steady as we backed down on it with both engines, and we were soon enjoying our safe arrival cocktails, reunited with Lady Carolina. Our first few days there we didn’t have any issues, so we thought Lady Carolina was being a little too precautionary by not ever leaving their boat unattended. We soon learned that they were not.

I think it was our third night that we dragged anchor in the middle of the night in moderate winds. This was the first time we had dragged since getting the new Rocna (and the only time since, I might add). And while it was a pain, because OF COURSE these sorts of things always happen at night, it really wasn’t too much of an issue, because we learned our lessons about dragging a long time ago. We had the anchor alarm set, it woke us up, we reset the anchor (OF COURSE it didn’t set the first time since it was the middle of the night, and it was raining). Close to daybreak the anchor alarm went off again, and we went through re-anchoring process again. I stayed up at that point, because while I’m talking this down like it was no big deal at this point, anchor dragging is ALWAYS a big deal, and my nerves were a bit shot. The anchor alarm kept going off as Exodus continued to slowly drag back again, but I let Tim sleep and figured we could reset again in the morning, which we did. But at the time when the sun came up, we were about 100-150 ft back of where we had been the night before, and don’t think the boat behind us didn’t notice. I got a VHF call from them in the morning, and they very politely let me know that we seemed a bit closer to them this morning than we had been before.

After that we went another couple days without incident. Except for the rain. Have I mentioned the rain yet? It rained pretty much the whole time we were in Pago Pago. Sometimes just light showers, sometimes torrential downpours, but I think the only day it didn’t rain was our very last full day there, which just happened to be my son’s 13th birthday. Anyway, after a couple days with a firmly set anchor I was spending the day at the laundromat doing about 10 loads of laundry. Our friends from Lady Carolina joined me, and after having had their own anchor firmly set for over a week, this was the first time they had left the kids alone on the boat. So, of course, all hell broke loose.

They got the radio call from their son that their anchor was dragging, so Steve, Father and Captain, rushed back out to the boat. From my own little handheld VHF radio I was monitoring traffic after that, and I gathered that they were tying up to a huge industrial mooring, since they couldn’t seem to get the anchor reset. Just when it all sounds like it’s going fine, and I’m settling in to wait for my clothes to be done in the dryer by watching the most excellent movie they are showing that is called “Sharknado,” I pick up half of a VHF conversation between Steve (Lady Carolina) and Brenden, my youngest son who was left alone on Exodus while my husband and older son went to help Lady Carolina.

All I can hear is:

Steve: “Not now Brenden”

-Pause-

Steve: “Oh! Well, can you start the engines?”

-Pause-

Steve: “OK, Alex will be right back to help.”

That’s right. Exodus picked this exact moment to ALSO start dragging anchor. Being stuck at the Laundromat watching low budget sci-fi movies during a crisis like this has its advantages. Admittedly, there was NOTHING I could do, so all I did was listen and wait. Eventually, I heard that my husband was back on Exodus and together with help from the boys got the anchor reset. The story I heard later was that Brenden had gotten the engines started, but was at a loss of what to do after that, so he grabbed a fender from one of the lockers and was running around the boat prepared to fend off anything we might hit. Comical. Alex was able to rev forward enough on the engines to hold Exodus in place, so Brenden didn’t actually have to use his fender and together they kept Exodus safe until their dad was able to come take over. Later, we noticed the boat behind us had put out all of their fenders as well. Probably a good precaution.

It’s a funny story now, but if only that were the end of it. We knew the weather forecast for that night was pretty grim, with the gribs predicting 25+ knots, which usually means much higher. There was lots of radio chatter about the forecast, and one of the boats even decided to just leave and face the weather out in the open ocean rather than in the confined harbor with boats dragging all over the place. Tim always says, “It’s not the ocean that’s dangerous, it’s all the hard stuff around the edges.”

Anyway, of course the winds started to pick up as the sun went down. And shortly after that the calls for help on the VHF started. First, a vessel near the back of the harbor called Pago Pago Port Control to let them know there were two boats dragging, both unattended. One of the dragging boats had actually fouled the anchor of another boat, but luckily that boat had its crew on board and they were able to free themselves. The other dragging boat was at the very, very back of the anchorage on a mooring ball. Port Control never responded. A bit later, a call came from a fellow Lagoon catamaran that was anchored in front of Lady Carolina’s industrial mooring. Apparently, they were dragging and then their windlass cut out so they couldn’t raise the anchor. Tim jumped in the dinghy to go help, and together with a skipper from another vessel they were able to get the situation under control. They radioed Port Control to see if there was somewhere along a dock they could tie up to for the rest of the night. Again, no answer. So, they just tied up to a tug boat that was tied to the quarantine dock. They figured they would ask forgiveness in the morning, if necessary.

Later, Exodus got into the dragging fun. We basically just got into a routine of monitoring the anchor alarm as we slowly dragged back and then at some threshold we would raise anchor and reset and repeat. The wind topped out in the 45 kts sustained range, and to top it off, it rained cats and dogs, so every time we had to reanchor, Tim had to go get wet. It was a long night, and the when the sun came out the next morning, it was a very welcome sight.

This was a pretty big storm, felt across a large area of The Pacific Ocean. In fact, this same night when we were dragging anchor, resetting, and repeating, another vessel in the atoll of Suwarrow in The Cook Islands went aground. Although the two people on board were safe, the vessel was lost. So, aside from the foul bottom, Pago Pago is actually a pretty decent place to weather out a storm like this. The shape of the harbor eliminated any substantial fetch and probably protected us from even higher wind speeds.

Something that I totally forgot to mention in the blog post, was that the night when we were dragging, Tim tried something new with the anchor that did seem to help a bit, althought it’s hard to say for sure.  He basically attached our mushroom dinghy anchor to the anchor chain near the main anchor.  This is referred to as a “kellet” anchor, and apparently it enjoys a bit of controversy regarding how effective it really is.  Here’s a link to some info: http://www.coastalboating.net/Cruising/Seamanship/Anchoring/Kellets.html

Although not the most effective way to improve your anchoring situation (a heavier main anchor and more chain out is ALWAYS better), in a situation where your options are limited a kellet is certainly worth a shot.  The theory is sound in that it should provide SOME benefit, how much benefit and whether that benefit is overall negligible depends on many, many factors.  Like I said, using it that night seemed to help, but it could just be that the main anchor itself set better, so we will never know for sure.