One anchor is not a plan. It is a hope with a rope attached. In Kuwait the bottom switches from soft mud to sand to weed over a short distance, and the wind rarely holds one direction for a whole afternoon. A single anchor works fine until the tide turns, the boat swings, and the anchor lets go at two in the morning.
Holding power comes from angle, not weight. In five metres of water you want roughly five times that in rode to keep the pull flat along the seabed; shorten it and you are lifting the anchor instead of loading it. Then the tide changes, the boat swings 180 degrees, and the anchor has to set again in the opposite direction. In mud or weed that second set often fails.
Most of our trips happen close to shore, where the distance to the shallows is short. The second anchor is not luxury gear; it buys you time.
Drop the main anchor and let it settle on full scope. Then set the second one 30 to 45 degrees off the first and lead both rodes over the bow. Never lead an anchor from the stern in wind or current; you will lie broadside to the sea with the transom buried. Once both are down, line up two fixed points on shore and check the bearing every half hour. Switch on the anchor alarm if you have one; an anchor you are not watching is an anchor you do not have.
Engine failure. Do not grind the starter until the battery is flat. Ease the load on the main rode, recover the second anchor, then decide: hold where you are, anchor as a last resort, or call for help. That decision should take minutes, not an hour.
Dragging at night. Do not go over the side in the dark. Start the engine, take the strain off, recover the dragging anchor, and re-set with more room. If the shore is close, open water is the safer direction.
Talking to people. VHF channel 16 for a distress call, with your position, the number of people on board and the nature of the problem. For anything less urgent, call the relevant authority and keep it short. When it is serious, the SOS button in B7R sends your position instead of leaving you to describe it over a crackling handset.
Before you leave the berth: who lifts the anchor, who takes the helm, where the lifejackets are, where the torch and knife live, and what it sounds like when you say we are moving. A crew that has heard the plan once reacts in seconds rather than minutes.
Two anchors, one spare rode, and a plan you have said out loud. That is the difference between an inconvenience and an incident. Check sea state and tide in B7R before you leave — free on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.q8dm.b7r