Tropical Storms
Tropical Storm Hanna is on her way. As I write this, she’s just off the coast of South Carolina and expected to make landfall. She’s expected to give us 20 – 55 mph winds (depending on the current forecast) and a 2 – 4 ft. tide surge.
First notice I received that I needed to consider doing something about my boat was from the marina. They have a list of owners who want their boats hauled out immediately in case of a hurricane. That means they’ll be the ones getting first dibs on the space available. Since Hanna wasn’t (isn’t) expected to be that strong, there wasn’t going to be an automatic haul-out. But they would take it out of the water if I wished. I didn’t think it was necessary.
Next notice was an email from my insurers, BoatUS, who suggested I read about Named Storms in my policy. Okay. Here goes…
The applicable deductible amount showin on the Declarations Page will be subtracted from each loss. It will not apply in the event of a total or constructive total loss.
However, in the event of any loss caused directly or indirectly by a storm named by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and if your bot is located in the state of VA, FL (and about 1/2 a dozen other states)
…. blah blah blah….
Basically, the deductible is bigger if NOAA deems the storm namable. You can reduce that amount if you have the boat on dry land and it’s lashed down and the sails are removed.
What to do, what to do.
Next I heard from Dave, who suggested I add extra lines to hold my boat, lashing down the boom, and removing the sails. Of any advice I receive, I tend to put Dave’s first.
So, Thursday night, I headed over and talked with some of the other owners who were preparing their boats for the storm. They were tying down their roller furlers, rather than removing the jibs, and doing the same to the mainsails. I did the same. I also lashed the boom to the aft port and starboard cleats. I put all the fenders out. At one owner’s suggestion, I put a line from the transom (I’m parked transom in) to the cleat on the slip a couple away from mine. He said there wouldn’t be anyone around to trip over it (hope he’s right!). So I did that, too.
Now to wait a couple of days and hope it all works well!
Weather and Unpredictability
Trying to figure out when to head out on the boat, I usually check weather.com for the ‘longer term’, and the tide and buoy information on boatus’ site as the time gets closer. Sometimes it’s helpful. But, as anyone who’s lived around here any time at all knows, the weather predictions are a crap shoot at best.
So, today I called those who’d said they’d like to head out and told everyone to wait until the afternoon, since the buoy data was showing no wind (2-4 knots). I was hoping for better in the afternoon. I couldn’t get hold of everyone, so I headed out to the boat anyway. Breeze was there, and it actually ended up being some nice sailing for a couple of hours. At that point, the wind did die and we came back in.
[Top]High Winds
Debbie joined my on the boat today. It’s the first time she’s been on and, I think, the first time she’s been on a sailboat this size. I recall her saying that she had sailed before on a yacht. Ah well! To come so far down in the world!
It was quite breezy and choppy. I settled for doing some motoring and bringing out the mainsail, but not the jib.
I’m still pretty nervous when the winds are high. Part of it, I’m sure, was the fated Cock Island trip home. Part of it, too, is that, although I feel comfortable, and actually enjoy, heeling over so the rails on on the water when someone else is in charge, I’m still not comfortable doing it when I am. I know – and keep reminding myself – that a sailboat is quite stable; it takes alot to tip it over. But I still am uncomfortable when I get it at more than a 30 degree angle.
I probably would have been more comfortable, too, if Debbie were a seasoned sailor. But it was one of those occasions when I was going to have to sail it myself, since she was going to not going to understand what to do.
So the trip was short. And I did let her steer for a bit once we got the mainsail down and were headed back to the docks. And I told her next time, hopefully, we’d have more warm bodies to help out, and we’d be able to do more.
Cock Island – The Journey Home
Steve N and I took 4 Degrees back to Yorktown on Sunday. We didn’t get moving until about 11, after we had breakfast and said all our goodbyes.
It was hot, and the wind just wasn’t there as we traveled up the Elizabeth River. We began to fear we’d have to motor the entire way. No one else seemed to be having much luck either, so it wasn’t for our lack of trying.
As we turned the corner from the Elizabeth into the bay, our luck changed and the winds picked up. We actually had some pleasant sailing for awhile.
But, as we moved further up the bay, the waves got rougher and the winds got stronger. We were going downwind, and the winds were mainly off starboard, but Steve rigged a preventer, just in case, to prevent the main from whipping across the boat.
Not much longer after that, we took in the jib. But, by then, the winds were strong enough that it was difficult to roll it in smoothly.
My boat is well rigged for reefing the main. There are lines on the mainsail itself, as well as rigging on the boom. I asked Steve why we didn’t do so. He said we were moving well and he didn’t want to slow us down.
Um, yeah. Heavy winds will do that. And, as one friend said when I told him of this experience, by the time you think you should reef the main, it’s usually too late.
Kenny talked to me over the weekend about the experience of ‘surfing’ a sailboat. Sounded kind of strange to me. But we actually did that. We hit some of those waves just right that we rode their crests for a bit.
As time goes on and the weather gets worse, I’m getting more and more nervous. But I really got nervous when Steve put on a life jacket. I told him where the harness was, too, and he put that on. He then took the wheel and I went to don a life jacket as well.
And all this time, I’m wondering what I’m going to do if he falls over. I can’t reach the radio – I’m too nervous to leave the wheel. My cell phone is below, because I was afraid of losing it overboard. Only thing I can think to do is hit the ‘Man Overboard’ button on my GPS, to mark the location, and let someone know as soon as I get to port.
We see the storm rolling in, and the rain and lightning in the distance. It doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon. Then the preventer broke. Luckily, neither of us was in the way when the main whipped across the cockpit. Steve commented later that next time, he should rig it with something heavier. My comment back was better that the preventer broke than something on the boat.
Finally, after his lifejacket is on, Steve brings down the mainsail. We still haven’t reached the mouth of the York River, so we have a couple of hours to go. But we’ll do that motoring, which is much safer.
We do make it to Wormley Creek safe and sound. And, as usual, there’s no wind in the marina, even though the storm is still playing itself out on the river.
It’s 6 o’clock now. It’s taken us 7 hours for the entire trip.
We finished putting everything away and Steve asked if I wanted to head somewhere for dinner. I didn’t. I gave him a hug, told him no thanks. I did thank him for coming with me. But right about then, I just wanted to go home, crawl into a fetal position, and thank the gods that I was still alive.
[Top]Second (semi-) Voyage
I think I need to have a *long talk* with this boat! It seems to have the wrong idea about its (future) name.
So, it’s name, as we have the un-/re-naming ceremony, will be 4 Degrees. The idea is that this boat is my reward to myself for getting 4 kids through college. Well, it actually ended up being a 50th birthday present from my mom and my Significant Other. But that just meant I had more money to put towards repairs.
Anyway, back to the name….
So I asked a few friends if they’d like to take the first pleasure cruise on this boat. Weather all week had been looking good, and I had no doubt that this day would be any different.
As I said, the boat, though, has different ideas.
Well, we had the chance of rain. No biggie. That’s what they make foul weather gear for, right?
<sigh!> Not only did we get rain, we got hail. And it was cold, of course. And the winds picked up. But, that came later.
The creek where I have my boat berthed has a narrow channel. And, this day, we had a terrible time finding it. The aforementioned wind wasn’t helping matters, either. We kept going aground. First time, didn’t take much time to get going again. Nor did it the second time. But the third time, the passengers moved to the high side and we struggled to get free.
So now we’re free and finally in deeper (relatively speaking) water. Next problem? Crabpots!
For those unfamiliar with the Chesapeake Bay area, there are these landmines they call crabpots all over the place! They’re wire cages that the fishermen put on the bay floor, with a rope attached, and buoy attached to that. The buoy, of course, makes it easy to find them again. Problem is, there will be dozens in an area and little way to get around them. So you go through them. Problem with that? Well, hit one of those buoys (about the size of a large Clorox bottle) and the rope attached to them wraps around your propeller. If you’re real lucky, you can just unwrap it easily. If you’re not, and you’re a good soul, you get in the water and untangle yourself, leaving the buoy and rope in tact. If you’re not a kind soul, you get your handy dandy knife out and cut yourself loose.
So I made it through the minefield of crabpots and out of the shoals. But now the wind has picked up and it’s nasty cold, and we turn around. How far have we gone in all of this? Less than a mile! <double sigh!>
So then I get to practice backing my boat into its slip. I guess that’s the one lesson I did get to learn that day: prop walking and backing up.
Well, the captains I’ve sailed with had taught me a valuable lesson: keep the crew well fed. So I had a good feed prepared for lunch. We enjoyed that, listening to the rain falling outside and relishing in each other’s company.
So, though the sailing was again pretty crappy, the company was excellent!
