On reflection, the one SERIOUS error we made was not checking what the wind direction and speed would be overnight. That would have been so easy with SailFlow, which we usually check morning, noon and night. If we had known that overnight the wind would shift to the west and hit speeds of more than 20 with gusts to 30 mph, that night would not have found us tied to the Free Wall, since the St, Joseph River, and the Free Wall, are wide open to west winds off Lake Michigan.
Another thing that Ed, our repair guy in New Buffalo told us, was that we should always consider tying up bow into the direction where winds could come fron. As it was, each wave hit out stern, pushed us forward, then the boat came back when the wave passed, and so on, over and over all night long. The waves hitting the bow would have been much less damaging than hitting the stern.
Woulda. coulda, shoulda...
Dr. Bob is right to make this a teaching moment for all C-Brats who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future.