1. Set your main anchor and fall back to the scope you want.

2. Stand by at the bow with a second anchor, which can be much lighter, and wait for your boat to make its maximum swing to one side.

3. Then drop your second anchor as she starts to swing back, and snub the rode when she’s lined up halfway to where the main anchor would be dead ahead, i.e., half the distance to the centerline of the yaw.

4. Check both anchors by swimming down, using a face mask. She won’t yaw any more.

No matter where you anchor in the Bahamas when there isn’t much wind you should be careful not to anchor too close to shore, otherwise you are likely to be bothered by bugs. This is particularly true in the late summer and fall. At such times select as wide open an anchorage as you can find, as far away from shore as is consistent with the safety of your boat. You should be especially careful to stay well away from mangrove lined shores or those with heavy vegetation.

Even where there’s no strong reversing tidal current, you may want to use a Bahamian moor to avoid swinging into shallow water, or into another boat. The Bahamian moor lets you put out long scope and still enables you to swing within a very tight circle if wind directions shifts.

In a crowded harbor, you may not be able to set two anchors 180° apart, the true Bahamian moor illustrated above. Bill De Moranville recommends the use of  a modification of a Bahamian moor, which will set two anchors in a “ Y”, in a plane perpendicular to the wind direction. They should be at least 90° apart. Here’s how Bill De Moranville explained it be done (see illustration next page):

1. Drop your first anchor, fall straight back and set it. The point where the first anchor is dropped should be off to one side of the position in which you want the boat to lay. You will likely have to use power to get her to this first position.

2. After the first anchor is set, wait until the boat is at the fullest point of its swing. Then slack off the rode from the first anchor and power over to drop your second anchor. It should be in line with the first anchor, the line between them, perpendicular to the wind direction.

3. Keeping the first anchor rode slack (yet clear of the propeller!), fall straight back and set the second anchor.

4. Take up slack in both rodes so that the boat rides midway between the two anchors.

If the harbor is too crowded to safely set the second anchor under power, carry it in your dinghy out to where you want it. Be sure it is well set.

You’ll see many charter boats anchored more or less this way. Now you know what they’re trying to do!