Isabel

How is everyone's hurricane preperations going?

I'm in Deltaville, VA (halfway between Annapolis and Norfolk), right near the bay (5 minutes motoring from my dock and I'm at the mouth of the Piankatank (pretty wide and open to the bay). The hurricane path right now looks like I'll take a pretty good hit. Never done a hurricane prep before. This is my first season with the boat.

Got a few questions if you've done it before.

I just got a notice from my club to take down furling sails. I assume I should take down my main also?

How do I handle the dock lines? Should I attach extras? If there's a storm surge that goes 5 feet above high tide, how do I tie up to prepare for something like that? If I give that much slack in my lines I'll be colliding with the dock the whole time the surge is coming in.

Should I take everything home that I care about?

If it looks like it will be really bad in my area, am I best off getting her hauled out?

What else should I pay attention to? (already double-checked my insurance).

Thank you,
Parker

Hi Parker
This is my first time too, I'm up in Rock Hall withan e27.

Not sure of the wind but I think that the tidal surge is going to be awsome. The wind is going to blow the tide right into the bay and high tide ( at rock hall ) will be at 2 am on Friday.

Take all sails , bimini's canvas of all kinds off, Keeps the windage down cuts the chance of things flapping in the wind. Take the sail home.On the unlucky chance that the boat sinks the sails floating the cabin would be a mess. to deal with.

Take home any vaulable equipment, You can bring it back later,
( or sell it .... )

Not sure about the Dock lines My cleats are too small for double lines. ...... Not sure where to tie off in the marina for longer lines
that will allow for the surge. I think that longer is better like scope for a anchor.

When all fails the best thing is to check the insurance.


Good Luck .......

STAY AWAY FROM MY BOAT ISABEL!!!!!!

--Rico

Geoff Johnson in another forum has sent these web sites. Nboat has a good diagram for tying up a slips..




http://www.nboat.com/news/hurricane.shtml

http://www.practical-sailor.com/newspics/charts/8512survivestorm.pdf


__________________

Hello Parker

What prep did you end up doing? Did you get hauled?


I took all the sails and canvas off. Doubled up the dock lines and took a bunch of other stuff off the boat. Looks like the marina will have a crew to watch the boats and adjust lines if needed.

Stayed in the water and did my prep work yesterday after work. Got home at 5 am this morning. I feel like I did some extensive prep work and it's pretty well stripped....but, I spent a LONG time tying her up and I'm still not satisfied. I don't think 3 of my docklines have enough slack in them (I have 8 total and the others are plenty long). I think I could take 5 feet above high tide, but anything above that could be really hard on my cleats, maybe even rip one out?

I may go back tonight??? It's a little over 2 hours each way, so I'm not sure.

Nylon lines have the ability to stretch so don't sweat too much. If we get over 5ft of water there will be other problems!

Tie it upand fender to the best of your ability. Sounds like you stripped off all the canvas. Now go home and relax. Forget about the boat during the storm and deal with keeping water out of your basement. ( I rigging up a bildge pump on a battery just in case) Not much more you can do.

Let's see if we can get an Mid Atlantic Ericson I survived Isabel raft up going? ( Let's think Positive ! )

Hello Parker

Here is a website that you can watch the tide as the storm progresses.


http://storms.nos.noaa.gov

You're really looking to torture me aren't you!

I went back last night and retied two of my lines. I'm glad I did because they were way too tight. Now I'm just crossing my fingers.

Good luck.

No, I hope I'm not


Good luck

See you on the bay some time !

Let us know

OK guys the suspense is killing me. I've been watching Isabel on the news and reading your posts and want to know how things are. I'm so glad to be in San Diego. I pray you are safe and that any damage was minimal.
Jim of Doldrums
San Diego, California

Hi Jim

My boat was OK!!!! Rock Hall faired a little worse. The winds were not too bad but there was a storm surge of 8 ft on friday. Flooded a lot of people. Power was out on saturday.

Kudos to Spring Cove marina. The crew there were wading in waist deep water to loosen dock lines as the tide rose. Later they used a small boat to slacken the lines.

I heard that people in other marina broke dock lines asthe tide rose.

I got some water in my boat but I'll get water in a heavy morning dew! ( need window frame gaskets ).

Thanks for all the info on storm prep out there !

Still don't know. Jim - I was with you in sunny San Diego this past weekend. I left right before the storm.

As I'm travelling this week also, my wife is checking tommorrow. Got my fingers crossed - though I don't think it can be too bad because they (people at the marina) were calling people that had visible damage.

Parker