You off on holiday tonight? That from one of my colleagues, or co-workers as I believe they're now called. "Yes. Crack of dawn tomorrow, we're off".

"Where you going?" asked Tom. "Caribbean" said I. "We've chartered a boat and we're going to cruise the islands and look for Jimmy Buffet."

Tom gave me a quizzical look. "Stuart" he says. "You go to the Caribbean in the winter".

Hmmm. News to me. It was our first year living in the US. It was July. The kids were off school. It was summer. So, we were going on our summer holidays. And off we went. The BVI's to ourselves and not one blow, let alone a hurricane. And all at 50% off........and now we knew why. "If there is sign of a hurricane, we'll call you on the VHF, so make sure it's left on,"
said the Moorings guy, happily sending mum, dad, three nippers and a yacht that some other poor sucker owned, off into the depths of hurricane season.

"If there is a blow, firstly, the anchor chain is no good in the locker. Just run it all out. And, here's where to go" says he, going on to mark hurricane holes around the islands where no doubt, our under tens could spend happy hours tying the boat into a spiders web of ropes in the mangroves while we enjoyed a sundowner. Personally, I'd have preferred a pick up in a high speed RIB and a 747 back to Boston.

Of course, nothing untoward happened - other than the children asking about the semi erotic wood carvings in Foxy's Bar.

But we learned. That anchor chain thing. Forget all about scope and ratios, warp and chain or all chain etc... Just chuck it all out. If it's blowing old boots, like it is now, forty plus knots and yet another monsoon cloud burst of blinding, horizontal, torrential rain, it's good to know we've a half mile of chain out. And, if the wind swings through 180 degrees, we can simply step ashore.