and destruction was all around but like I always say, I'd rather be lucky then good. I had 4 anchors out with 30 pound sentinels on each of them. Five lines into the mangroves and everything off the outside of the boat. Some of the things like jerry jugs were tied into the mangroves. I had two sentinels on the boat but I used two SCUBA weight belts for the other two. I also used a large teak plug hammered into my exhaust to keep the water that was slamming into my stern from being driven up into my engine. Not my idea but I was really happy I stole the idea. I would do everything I could think of to secure the boat then get in my dinghy and motor around looking at what others were doing. Their were some pretty good ideas that people had and some pretty bad ones as well. I picked what I thought would help, go back to the boat and do it. Their was this old lady single hander (probably about me age now ) who was pounding a teak plug into her exhaust. I figured it couldn't hurt so I went back, modified the idea a bit by hose clamping a section of hose to my exhaust flange where it leaves the hull and driving the plug into the hose. I installed an eye bolt in the end of the plug with a line attached so I could pull the plug out if I needed to run the engine. The current running out of the bay through the mangrove channel I was in looked like a class 4 rapids and was hitting the back of the hull and rudder driving the stern down. There was also 130 knots hitting the rig from the bow driving the mast back and the stern down. Had I not copied the old ladies idea my engine would have been toast. It was hot and still until about two in the afternoon when the first bit of rain and wind started but the highest winds didn't get to us until 0100 or 0200. We had figured the peak winds would have arrived by 2100 and we thought we were in good shape at that time but the winds hadn't even cranked up yet. The eye had stalled as it went over St Crox beating that poor island into dust. The eye missed us by a few miles and went right over the Spanish Virgin Island of Culibra. That had been my first choice but had changed my mind at the last minute and stayed in St. Thomas. The eye hit Culibra and someone told me the wind instrument at the airport recorded 210 as it blew away. I can't confirm that but the island looked like s%$# afterwards. The author, Fatty Goodlander, lost his boat just as the eye went over. He had a pretty good bar story about it. Boats were stacked on the beach three deep all over the place. Hugo was the first really big hurricane to hit in about 20 years so no one was prepared for it. It was months before the light were back on and I can remember sitting at anchor living normally while there wasn't a single light on the hills around the harbor. I have to admit, that was a very teachable 30 days. The one take away was that I never want to do it again.