We had been anchored of Beaufort for two nights and had winds with gusts up to 25 knots with no problems, and we had elected to stay an extra night there rather than anchored somewhere up the ICW for the third night as winds were predicted to be up to 30 knots. The wind had been rising during the afternoon and by about 4pm were up to the mid twenties on a sustained basis and I had an inkling that we may have been moving. We were anchored in a creek (channel) between the town and a marshy island and the wind was blowing across the channel from the island, however because quite a strong tide was running up and down the channel the boat lay either totally to the tide or half and half depending on wind strength. It became clear we were dragging towards the town so in 26 knots we had to re-anchor. We had also looked at the NOAA weather forecast for our area only to find a severe weather warning in force predicting violent thunderstorms with hail the size of golf balls and winds up to 50 Knots plus. Yikes !! Because the channel was fairly narrow and the wind was blowing across it it was not possible to lay much chain so I decide to shackle the second anchor, a 20 Kg Brittany, behind the main 20 Kg Manson and let out 30 metres of chain, the max we could get away with. The depth was only 3.0metres at high tide so on a scope of 10 to one with 2 anchors we felt more comfortable. The wind then increased to the high twenties and I remembered what Winston, my first flotilla skipper in the Caribbean had said on anchoring " It aint no use to you in the locker man". I therefore took out a third anchor, a 16 Kg Delta on 20 metres of chain and laid that out as well, trying to balance the pull on all anchors by giving it extra rode (Rope). We then watched the wind speed rise into the thirties and by now because we werent lying head to wind because ot the tide the yacht was heeling right over in the wind. The wind rose through the to the high thirties and we just hoped everything would hold as there was nothing else left. Then we were into the low forties and the motion was quite violent as we hunted around heeling from one side to the other. Luckily thats as high as it got and we only had a few spots of rain and no thunder/lightning etc, and by 10pm the wind had subsided to the mid twenties and we were still where we started. The next day we went into town and the following day fuelled up and set off up the ICW. We calculate it will take 5 days to get to Norfolk and the Chesapeake doing about 45 miles per day. The engine cooling is OK although I have had to top up the water a bit. We anchored off the ICW on the first night and had a very quiet night. The area is shallow of course but we have been guided by Navionics and the Active Captain comments of cruisers which we have found really helpful. The canals and rivers we have used are a bit like the Norfolk Broads although today we had to transit 20 miles through a canal and at one point went too close to the bank and hit something which stopped us in our tracks. However we were not stuck and carried on and did not have to use our towing insurance. Tonight we have stopped in a 3 metre spot as described by Active Captain just at the side of the ICW on the Alligator river. No temptation to swim as the water is a dirty brown colour and we dont know if the river's namesakes are down there. There are however numerous crab pots to avoid just to make life more interesting.