You guys will be amazed with what I discovered. Read on...
When I got to the boat, I discovered that the port pendant had indeed ended up flipped on top of the anchor platform, as I had begun to surmise from staring at it from shore.
Here is what I first saw up at the bow; the port pendant had ended up strung between the two rollers and over the end of the platform at about the centerline:
The pendant had of course chafed where it ran over the platform edge, as seen here:
The platform was slightly worn under the pendant; no big deal.
What was a bigger deal, however, became noticeable a few minutes later. First, though, I noticed that the port chock had been pulled out of the toerail, leaving bent screws but only minimal toerail damage. You can see the chock still hanging on in the very first photo in the series above. This is a close-up of the toerail beneath.
The pendant must have been pulled sharply upwards beneath the ear of the chock to rip it out in this manner. More impressively, the heavy solid bronze chock was actually bent in the center, pulled slightly upwards before or while it was being ripped free.
The port pendant's outer sheating was badly chafed, but upon inspection I observed that the main structural inner core was completely intact. I am 100% sold on these high-strength Yale pendants. The line is still usable as is, though of course I will replace it immediately.
On the starboard side, the line was in good condition, and well-protected by the chafe gear that comes with the Yale lines. The chafe gear was worn through in one area, so I turned it and replaced the line in the chock. The slight chafe can be seen here:
OK, I've kept you waiting for the real news. Both Nathan and I were stunned by this discovery: the 3/8" thick stainless steel plate that provides the guts of the anchor platform was bent on the starboard side! This first became apparent by noticing that the starboard roller was pulled up slightly at the aft end, as seen here:
The starboard roller was also slightly deformed. Thank God the anchor hadn't been in place during all of this.
The wooden part of the platform was cracked near the centerline, and pulled away from the stainless plate a small amount by the bending force:
Here, in a shot taken from the dinghy, you can see the crack clearly between the two rollers, and also how the wooden part of the platform has separated from the stainless on the port side (right side of the photo):
Here is another view:
The forces that must have been at play here to bend that stainless (which is only cantilevered out less than a foot) are mind-boggling. Clearly, what happened is that one (or both) mooring line(s) became caught above the platform when the bow plunged down, and then pulled severely downward at a sharp angle as the bow rose on the next crest. Given the way the starboard roller was deformed, I hypothesize that the starboard pendant actually caught that, bent the roller and platform, and then pulled free (since it was not still caught there when I saw it; nor did it spend much time fouled there, as there was little or no chafe to be seen).
Obviously, the port pendant remained stuck in the center, and may have done all this damage itself, but I feel that the other side must have been at play as well.
Otherwise, the boat was in fine shape. My brand-new pickup buoy disappeared off the foredeck, and a few things had shuffled around in the galley, but no big deal. The CQR anchor, which I had stored on the sole in the head--tied to the sink pump foot pedal and wedged in place with pillows and other gear--had not moved in the slightest.
I reinstalled the port chock with two new screws, simply moving it about an inch for clear material, and moved the port mooring line back into the chock. Later, I'll properly bed the chock and so forth, but I just needed it back in place.
