Storm Preps

[Angela]

It's been decent in my little spot the marina gives me for storms. We had a small hurricane party - pizza, beer and played cards.

I got to do a little role reversal. You know, usually, the ratio is Pascal and a boat full of women. This evening, I got to be Pascal...me and a boat full of men. LOL All gone home now, but we had fun - the usual crowd, the liveaboard, do-it-yourself-ers.

We had a couple of really wet windy squalls, but as we sat here in the salon playing cards and watching TV, we never knew the boat was moving until you looked outside and could see it. She's moving from side to side, gently. Her lines catch her before she gets to the other side of this U-shaped basin I'm in.

So far, we only heard of one marine casualty - a sailboat out in the the stadium bay mooring field was washed up in front of the Rusty Pelican Restaurant. The stadium bay is a place known for boat disposal/graveyard so it doesn't take much for one to get washed up on shore. In fact, it doesn't even take a storm to do that.

Bedtime for me...I'll probably just sleep through the rest of this.

[Angela]

OK, maybe this isn't going to be the piece of cake, sleep all through the night kind of thing....I was just all snuggled up in bed with my kitty about to fall asleep when the rain and wind picked up. Then, "crunch"....OK, what was that? That wasn't normal. I looked out each PH door...nothing unusual. Went to the aft deck...something strange, but couldn't quite put my finger on it...I was half asleep when I heard the strange noise.

I keep looking and looking at the stern line - something was odd, but I just couldn't put my finger on it...OH, now I get it...I just ripped out a cleat on the dock.

Sanctuary's got some windage....So, there I am in the pouring rain, in my nightgown, soaking wet, trying to pull this beast of a boat back over, against the wind. Took some doing, but I got 'er done.

We have surveillance video all over the place. Gee, can't wait to see that one! Four cameras are pointed on my boat in this spot. LOL

I wonder how many more I'm going to snap tonight. Fortunately, only the stern lines are tied off to cleats on the dock. I've got lines around pilings for my springs and bow lines.

[Passages]

So Ang, give us the youtube keywords for seeing you in your nighty, driving rain, doing spot repair of dock cleats.

Gotta say, you are quite the trooper. We are thinking about you and hope everyone make it through this safely. Be thankful you are not on the Gulf side as those folks seem to be getting the worst of it.

Hang tight and give us a report in the morning.

[Pascal]

LOL... the marina staff is going to have fun watching the videos this morning!!!

they should have spread the loads though, your boat has a lots of windage....

the official graveyard isn't marine stadium but dinner Key anchorage... there were about 10 boats sunken/sunken/ashore before the storm. Some of the boats in the anchorage came in bow into the spoil islands but quite a few were left out.... it's blowing about 30kts on the bay so there will be more ashore.



btw, a couple guys came and put extra line on the bayliner last night, so now you only hope to move up a notch on the list woudl be bilge battery failure since they haven't connected shore power...

[Angela]

The cleat that came off - it wasn't really about spreading the load - the cleat was bolted only into wood decking and the whole thing fell apart. Remember, I'm in the drystack area. Those cleats, while of the large size, they've never had anything anywhere near this heavy tied to them. The wooden structure is wobbly, now, and that cleat just let go. When I pulled the line in, the cleat was still nicely tied to it. LOL The pilings I was tied to on the remaining lines are quite sturdy.

My normal cleats on my dock are through bolted into concrete - a much stronger installation. Folks tend to snap the cleat in half before it comes out of the concrete.

[Bertramp]

The Hatt is in NY at the village dock in Sag Harbor. Luckily, my Topaz was hauled mid-last week for some service, so its "on the hard" deep in the Dania cut. I removed all canvas from the 27 Blackfin behind the house, doubled the lines and kinda kept an eye out all night. I'm in a canal just north of Commercial Blvd in Lauderdale. Although only 100 yd from the intercoastal, the canal has two 90 degree bends, which make wakes and wave action from the intercoastal do 2 turns and flatten out. Still, the wind has bounced things around and the rain has been so heavy, that the overflow drain in the pool is having a hard time keeping up.
It was nicer up in Sag over the weekend, but FLA is the clear winner in February !

[Jaxfishgyd]

Now it's our turn for the storm....
Looks like it will pass south of us, into the atlantic then turn back west and hit jacksonville..... With most of it arriving tomorrow.

Have put out extra lines and fenders on not only my boat but the 5 others I take care of (owners all live out of state). No Bayliners.... Have one Hatt, 3 Marine Traders and an Ocean.

But as I have posted in the past, we are in an ideal area,35 miles inland, protected on 3 1/2 sides and have another marina protecting us on the only exposed area. open water" is only 1/2 mile long.

But the "bar of safety" has been set low by Ang. so am confident we will do a better job up here... :}

[Angela]

Ahhh, my dockmaster tells me he's making a "neat adjustment" for the next one and told me to stop by and see what it is. Stern pilings, perhaps? So I don't have to count on those two cleats in the back? We'll see...