when we hung up, it was blowing about 11 knots, but rose to 14 or 15 in short order. Prediction was 35-40 within 6 hours. Because of all the windage forward on 'Anomaly', we rode bow downwind. I was able to hook the line with a boat hook at full extension (9') by standing in the dinghy garage and leaning as far as I could over the transom. In 15 knots the line was quite taught, no way I could pull it above the water, let alone to deck level to cut it. The transom is heaving up and down about three feet at this point, adding interest to the experience. I tried tying a knife to the other boathook, the two of us trying to hold the line high enough and still enough saw through it at boathook length. It wasn't happening, and finally one boathook disappeared leaving me holding only the handgrip. The other boathook was shorter, so I couldn't hook it with that one.

I met a guy who posts here in NE Harbor, he suggested this: [url]http://www.sailorssolutions.com/index.asp?page=ProductDetails&Item=CH01[/url]
It looks like it could be dangerous, but effective! Would be a good tool even if you had to go in the water. But it would have solved my problem for sure. I have purchased one.

Someone has suggested I could have hooked a small anchor onto the line and winched it aboard. It seems obvious, I don't know why I didn't think of that. Would have been some effort to rig, and quite possibly some topsides damage involved, but might have worked. Going into the water in that particular set of circumstances had, in my estimation, about a 70% chance of being fatal. The line probably could have been cut from the dinghy, but launching the dinghy out of the garage with waves beginning to break against the transom had its own set of dangers. In thinking about it long afterwards, I could have gone into the water with a second line, dove and tied a rolling hitch onto the pot line. Then got back aboard, winched the second line in till I could cut the pot line. That would have kept the boat stationary until I was back aboard. At the time, there was no safe or sure way to get back aboard in those conditions, and I'm not sure I could have performed the work in the 60 deg water with no wetsuit.

A lot of the problems were due to lack of preparation for this sort of event. I should have had a wetsuit. The wife should be more familiar with operating the boat alone. I should have a midships boarding ladder. I should have had better knives available. I should have a line cutter on the prop. All of which is being addressed.