Always have the anchor prepped and ready to drop when entering a pass under power

Approaching the pass into Tahiti with an engine that had already failed once that night, Lauren Landers Sailing made a point of having the anchor staged and ready to deploy before entering. She described this as a safety habit she always follows: making sure the anchor can be dropped at any moment when motoring through a pass. With 5 miles still to go and a real concern that the engine could die again in the confined, swelly water of the pass, having the anchor instantly available gave her a fallback option if propulsion failed at the worst possible moment.