4th of July in NYU

Cruising to NYU to see tall ships in NY Harbor.

Anchored near Statue of Liberty in designated viewing area on July 3 with 50-60 other boats reasonably spaced. had ~ 100ft of chain out with my 65 Mantus anchor in ~ 20 ft of water and holding well. Sky started to darken at ~ 7:00pm with lightning in the distance. Thunderstorm came up through suddenly with 70 to 80 mph wind and heavy rain and hail. many boats including me drug there anchors and went off in all directions. My dingy blew off the top of the deck and was hanging on the side of the boat. There were many collisions and near misses. My boat missed about 3-4 boats but another sailboat also out of control, hit me on my starboard side with his bow. We separated and drifted off in opposite directions and i never saw him again. It was chaos until it passed in about 30 min with a rainbow and dazzling sunset. my boat had extensive damage to the lifelines and stangents but I don't think any hull damage.

Don't know what we could have done with the anchor out and snuber on . could not have gone out on the deck to pull the anchor and just had to go with the flow. i had my engine on and was trying to steer away from any boats in revers as i did not want to go over chain and fowl my prop.

left the anchorage early in the morning to head home and ran in to all the tall sjhips getting ready for the parade. Probably a better vantage point then i would have had at the anchorage

Arrived home in AC that night in time for the fireworks on teh 4th.

All in all a real adventure. now to get my boat repaired and deal with teh Insurance company.

there are some great videos on Face book of the chaos in the harbor.