Maybe it's just me, but if I was watching any ship approaching, knowing it was coming very close to where I was anchored, I would simply pull up anchor and get out of the way. But....that's just me.
I think you could find in in some cases, pulling your anchor would not be practical with a ship coming at you and the decision may not be as simple as it sounds. It takes considerable time to pull a deep water anchor system down 2oo to 300 feet, even in the best weather and mild current and could involve you actually powering towards the ship to pull the anchor. In some case you could end up with 600 to 800 hundred feet of rode and the ball on the surface but not retrieved and I would not want that snagged by a ship and then pulling your boat into it. Sometimes on rare occasion more than one attempt with variation in direction is necessary using motor power to release and pull the anchor.
Detaching from the anchor system and leaving it in place could be your best bet and them gunning your big motor. Some keep a serrated knife handy or a quick release system to cut themselves free in an emergency which may be faster than slower methods of detaching. You would have a mess of course as your fishing lines would still be down trailing your boat and could possibly end up tangled or even in your prop. In addition there are many ships out there, often going across the main east to west lanes going into harbour or to anchorage as well as tugs towing etc. Because of their size they often appear to be going slower than they are and can close distance quickly. In all but the most rare cases, they will pass you and not drive over you, but hard to tell till they are fairly close. I agree that it is better to be on the safer side and get out of the way earlier than later.
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