I thought some of you might be wondering.
Mangrove forests can be many square miles in area, fringing the shore. Some are spindly things with 6Ft high interlocking aerial interlocking roots, impassable by anything large. Some are large trees, with up to about 3 Ft trunks, & 30 to 50 Ft high.
Some creeks are wide, straight & deep, useless as bolt holes. Ours was narrow, only 60Ft wide at most, & very twisty, offering great protection. The foliage is tougher than most trees, & offers great friction to the wind. A mile of mangroves can reduce a 100 knot wind to under 20 knots to a considerable height above them.

It was in a bay, about 2 miles wide by 2.5 miles deep, filling the inner area, fronted by about a mile of drying mud flat. We needed at least 12 Ft of tide to get in there, & more withy some boats.

We would point up stream & moor the boats to the larger mangrove trees each side bow & stern, with long strong mooring lines. There had to be plenty of spare line, as the creek would flood up to 40 Ft or so, requiring the lines to be continually adjusted out. At the peak of this flood, the wheelhouse of the ferries were above the tree tops, giving a frightening view of the seas rolling in just half a mile way.

The boats were usually only about 20 Ft apart & a line was run from each bow to the boat in front. We would also run a line down one side of all the boats. When flooding the creek could run at over 12 knots, too fast for a tinny/dingy, so we would pull the thing along the line by hand to check each boat regularly.
At the height of a cyclone the rain can fill a dingy in about half an hour, requiring regular bailing. These were not nice places, hot muggy & smelly, but much safer than anything else available.

Thanks hasbeen. Very interesting.