Hurricanes and windy stories

[grampianman]

I'm just updating what the forum may be following from the relatively safe North.

Ft. Myers and Tampa are under hurricane warning and we are expecting a cat. 2 hurricane possibly a low 3 tomorrow. St. Petersburg and Tampa are clearing out. It's going to be nasty for a while.

I'm glad I hauled last weekend, though I have to tie the boat to the trailer and I think I'll put out some lines to nearby trees to keep the whole thing upright. I've not had a boat on land during a blow, they've always been in the water! Live and learn.

Cheers all,
Ian
Wing and a Prayer, G-23

[dasein668]

And there's another one right on its heels, isn't there?

Good luck. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

We are, indeed, a bit insulated from these things up here in the northeast... Of course, even here you can't afford to be completely blase. We do get smacked every once and a while...

[dasein668]

Oh, right... Bonnie's there already... You were talking about Charly...

[heartofgold]

I will post this here, as the hurricane discussions have already been started:

This past Monday afternoon, I flew to Dallas on business. As I was checking in at the hotel that night, my wife calls and tells me about Bonnie (it wasn't even a whisper when I left town, and I checked the WxChannel before I took off). Anyway, the initial reports (computer models) suggested that Pensacola was right in the center of the projected path, and I was stuck in--Texas? The following morning, Tanya suggested (without prompting from me) that she go to the marina lower the mast (with help) and tow the boat to a safer location. We later decided that (as Bonnie appeared to be headed more east) we leave it with the mast up at the marina, but she offered again to go to secure it (properly). Do I have a good wife, or what? Of course you must realize that she called Sailing Buddy, telling him that she put a rope throught the shiny things (bow chocks) and around the trailer, and that she ran an extra line through that thingie up front (bow eye). Luckily for me, Sailing Buddy works only 5 minutes from the boat, and he was able to check it during his lunch hour. The end result was that as we were on the weak side of the storm, the worst we had was 15-20 knot winds (we had that last weekend without a tropical storm!) and that luckily, everything worked out fine.

But seriously, I wish you well. Clyde--I mean Charley--looks like a dangerous storm. Please let us know how things go. We just dodged a bullet and we hope you have the same good fortune. Our fingers are crossed.

[David]

they just upgraded the storm to a Cat 3 with winds of 145 and an expected 10 ft storm surge in St Pete. I expect my boat to wind up in downtown somewhere or sunk at the docks. Trying to sort out a plan now for salvaging her. Any suggestions or experience with this would be helpful. What happens when thousands of boats need salvaging at the same time? What a nightmare...

David

[heartofgold]

David,
I can't offer you any advice, except for a few articles from Sailnet by Don Casey. If I recall, the jist of the article was to envelope your boat with fenders, and to tie multiple lines in case one or more part due to chaff. I'm sure if you have the time to read it you would find it helpful, from a common sense point of view.

I have been through Frederick and Opal (both Cat 3), and numerious near hits from several Cat 1 and 2 storms; The eye of Erin (Strong Cat 1) pass directly over us. We did not have sailboat through any of them, but we did live on the waterfront.

The people around the office just were talking about an upgrade to Cat 4 (I haven't confirmed this yet, and don't want to start a false rumor). We wish you the best! Be safe!

Doug and Family
Pensacola, Florida

[David]

Thanks Doug,

The storm is ashore now at Charlotte Harbor, well south of Tampa Bay and while they are getting the brunt of an 18 ft storm surge, St Pete is expecting 4 to 6, certainly survivable at the municipal marina...so there is a glimmer of hope in all this bad news. Maybe I will still have a boat when I return.

David

[Tim]

David (and other Floridians):

How did you make out? The hurricanes barely got mention on the weather radio up where I was--we stayed in a port one day for the remnants of one that they sort of mentioned by name in passing, which never materialized in the slightest--though I heard sometime this week that parts of Florida were devastated. Not being a news junkie, and since I go cruising to relax and get away, I admit to not following one iota of news during the entire fours weeks I was out, so I am hopelessly (and embarrassingly) uninformed, I am afraid.

I hope all of you down there made out OK, and that you'll be able to let us know when appropriate how things are.

Look forward to hearing from you, and hope all is well.

[David]

Tim, et al:

Thankfully we survived the hurricane--the eye of it passing directly over us at about 9:45 last Friday night--with no loss other than electricity, which was restored about an hour ago.

Even my boat in St Pete, which earlier in this thread I was convinced would be lost when Charley was expected to make land just north of Tampa bay, is fine. St Pete suffered no amount of wind or storm surge.

We had winds of about 90 mph over our house and generally over Orlando, down from 145 when the storm came ashore at Punta Gorda. It was a very tightly wound storm with a narrow eye, but the way trees are downed in this area looks like it spawned a number of tornados as it passed over. We live on a lake, and I think it was picking up as much lake water as it hit our house as it was carrying rain which streamed perfectly horizontally up the street. I enjoyed most of the storm from the lee of my front porch, watching a very large oak in my yard bend 90 degrees from the wind.

I hope everyone else touched by the storm faired as well as we did.

Best regards,

David