These are pictures of the Pensacola Shipyard and Marine Complex of Pensacola, Florida after Hurricane Ivan, September, 2004. Visit www.mservers.net/Ivan for more.

Click on the thumbnails for a larger view (opens a new window).


Three sunken sailboats are in the above picture Two boats are on this side of the pier in the foreground. One is with a broken hull and pushed partly under the pier. You can see its broken mast on the other side of the pier against that boat. The third one with the blue jib sail doesn't belong there. It's also the one that dragged the bow anchor of Wind Song. When Tony pulled this anchor up to get his free, he was about 30 feet from the bow of this boat. That's way too little anchor line for hurricane wind conditions and a 10 foot storm surge. The anchor was a 20 pound CQR ... too small for hurricane conditions, though it's hard to say if it was the only anchor used. Judging from the other lack of preparations, it's a guess that it was the only anchor. The jib sail should not have been left up at all. The wind blew a portion of the jib sail out. The mail sail had no sail cover, only lines were tied around it. The wind blew a portion of the mail sail out. The bimini was folded up on the frame and left up. All of these factors added to the windage and the ability to drag anchor.