Forecast was for mild weather Fri and Sat and a change back to the usual summer westerly on-shore flow (and cooler weather) on Sunday. We headed out for the first night at Paradise Park late Friday afternoon and arrived before sunset with beautiful warm weather and light winds. The anchor set well on the first pull, and we put out about 6:1 scope in 18ft of water.
The next morning, winds began ramping up quickly in the early AM. The escalating wind along with a dropping barometer was a pretty clear sign that the weather guys were off base with their weekend forecast. By 0930 it was gusting to 30kts and by 1030 we had a steady 30 knots out of the West. We didn't really have anywhere worthwhile to go that would get us out of the weather, and where we were anchored, the wind was blowing off the beach so there was limited fetch (so wave height was capped at 2-3 feet). Figuring that the worst that would happen if our anchor dragged would be a quick trip to deeper water, we decided to stay put and turn this trip into an anchor holding test. By late morning we had steady winds in the low to mid 40 knot range, and this kept up through the early evening.
By Sunday morning when we headed home, winds were back down in the teens.
So, no dinghy or kayak adventures, no barbecuing, and no lounging on the deck, but we stayed comfortable and safe throughout, didn't lose too much sleep, and didn't drag anchor a bit.
Our initial anchor set served us well, and we never had to add more scope.
We spent the weekend on our main anchor (105lb Rocna) and about 120ft of 3/8 G40 chain, and turned around through a few big tide changes.
Not the weekend getaway we were looking for, but a reassuring test of our ground-tackle.
Here's a neat little time-lapse video we took Saturday afternoon with our new GoPro:
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