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Hurricane Preparation

41K views 142 replies 62 participants last post by  Group9 
#1 ·
Hurricane Preparation

Given the impending storms, I feel it would be appropriate to outline some hurricane preparation suggestions/steps for cruisers and boat owners. For those of you that will be weathering your first storm, it will be an experience. I would strongly suggest not weathering the strom on your boat. For the most part, once it is close, you are stuck on your boat for better or worse. That may not sound really bad until it is howling overhead and you cannot even hardly stand up, much less get off the boat. Take note that it is my STRONG understanding that most people who have ever weathered a hurricane on their boat would NEVER do it again. I am one of them.

Remember that many municipalities shut the bridges down at 35 mph, so be counscious of the timing to get prepared and get off the island or wherever you are at.

Preparations check list for cruisers:

1) Fill up with fuel, including gas for the dink. After the storm, there will likely not be fuel for days or weeks and no electricity either. A generator is very nice to have.

2) Fill up with water. Get extra water!!! Get Ice too. You cannot imagine how precious ice is until you can't get it anymore.

3) Fill up your propane tanks.

4) Get lots of extra bug spray and at least one can of raid. The mesquitoes and no-seeums will be unimaginable afterwards. THere also seems to be an abundance of fire ants floating around in the storm surge, amongst other things.

5) Lots of food. Supermarkets will be closed for a many days/weeks.

6) Get out cash. You will not be able to use your Credit cards as there is no power.

7) Get any meds you need.

8) Extra batteries for a flashlight and even an extra flashlight will be very helpful.

9) A battery operated weather radio.

10) A Handheld VHF.

(Boat prep)​

11) Drop everything that can catch the wind. THis includes the jib RF, main, all your canvas, cockpit cushions, and any items on deck. Get them away from the coast if possible. Anything that stays on deck, like the RF, should be lashed VERY tightly. You will be setting on your rail until the eye passes, then the other rail.

12) You are going to have to come up with a plan for the dink. If it gets free, it will be gone. If you can deflate it and put it in the lazarette, go for it. If not, either lash it securely to a tree (against the tree) or securely on deck. The deck may be the better place so you will likely still have it after the storm and it lessenss the chances of strom surge taking it away, but it also creates more windage. That decision is yours.

13) Double or triple lines if you are in a marina. I call it spidering, but I am sure there is some nautical term for it. Basically the more lines, the better. You also, (assuming you are getting a storm surge and not having all the water sucked out), need to put the lines high to account for the surge.

14) Lots and lots of fenders, where appropriate.

15) Chafe protection. Anything that might chew through a line, will chew through a line. If you need something quick, you can try using pieces of hose. You can use old towels. In a pinch, maybe tape... but don't go sparingly on the chafe protection.

16) Assuming you are not planning on riding out the strom on your boat, get off your valuables. This includes ID's, jewelry, documentation, pictures, and anything else you do not want to lose.

17) If riding it out outside of a marina, my suggestion is to find an area where you can spider lots of lines to trees. Mangroves seem to work fairly well for this. You can try really setting in a strom anchor in the direction of expected most wind. You may even consider a "bahamian moor" type arrangement where a secondary anchor take the force when the wind clocks around. It will likely be as bad or worse right after the eye, depending on where you are at.

18) If riding it out in an open bay, all I can say is good luck. Setting the anchors as mentioned before may (MAY) be your best bet. I have not ridden a storm out like this but have seen MANY boats that do. The issue will be the other boats around you that will break lose and either come into you or catch your anchor and drag you with them. A better solution may be finding a canal where you can spider in the docks or trees if the owners there will let you. But in the end, any other boats or large floating debris that can come into you will most likely be your downfall.

19) Anything on the dock will be gone or under water. Clean out your dock box if you have one unless it is items that can be under water for a very long time. ANything else on the dock should be securey lashed away from the dock. THe surge will persist for a while after the storm. You don't want to be tripping through dock debris any more than you have to.

20) Be very cautious of floating docks. Look and see how high they can float before they come off the pilings or are shattered on the pilings. The floating docks were completely destroyed in Gabrielle and anything that was on them or near them was taken with them. Think about that when deciding where to tie up your boat.

21) Consider video taping or taking pics of your items for insurance purposes.

Hurricane preparation starts long before a storm is coming. Everyone will be waiting until the last minute to get stuff, so plan ahead and don't get caught with the crowd... AND GET OUT CASH!! Also, it will take a lot longer to strip the boat than you think. Much of this preparation can be done long before the storm is bearing down on you. About 12 hours before the storm, you may be getting lots of rain bands and squally weather... not a good time to be working on your boat. Make sure you are done before then.

I hope these items help. They are many of the steps we take/took in storm preparation. Again, I strongly urge everyone to get off their boat and to not ride out the storm there. It will be miserable. Feel free to add any comments or anything I missed. I am sure there are items.

All the best. Fair winds and good luck.

- CD
 
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#37 ·
I feel pretty fortunate, the marina I'm based out of is behind the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier, which can stop up to 21' of storm surge. The cove I'm in is off of a river and fairly well sheltered from the wind on all sides but the southwest...and that is still a fairly short fetch.. :D
 
#40 ·
We just went through our first boat hurricane prep (done enough in houses in the carib and Pacific) in the USVI. Luckily St. Thomas was spared the wrath of Dean, but the week leading up to it was tense. The boating community sure gets stressed during this time.

Some things I noticed:

The majority seem to wait until the last minute to do something. We are in the middle of storm season and the marine supply store sold tons of chain, shackles, etc. in the days before Dean. Thus, get on it early, have a plan A and B and the gear for it.

Many boats were never attended to... thus ready to become slow projectiles aimed at our boat.

Marina: We opted for an open slip in a protected mangrove lagoon. While it seemed like a good idea, it may have not worked with a Cat 3-5 storm as the pilings/docks were a wee bit shabby. Check your marina closely.

Get Off the Boat: In hurricane Marilyn (1995 VI), all of the deaths were of boaters on their boats. One guy who survived, was swept off his boat in Charlotte Amalie harbor (S side St. Thomas) and woke up on the beach on Jost Van Dyke (N of St. Thomas)... an 18 mile ride!! Concrete is our preferred bed for a storm.

Get the stuff off: Remember that you may end up with water down below... lots of it. And a cabin stuffed with sails, bimini, etc. all soaking wet is a nightmare to deal with. Ok, a soaked boat is a nightmare, but a soaking wet jib for a 40' boat can be a bear.

Mangroves: Wear serious footwear for the dance of tying to mangroves. One slip and you could be cut bad by barnacles and mangrove oysters. Plan on lots of lines to make it to healthy big branches. Plan on rats.

Many ways to go about it: There are as many ways to prep as there are old salts out there. And each is best in the right situation. Noting is perfect except getting your boat out of the belt during the season. OW, prep and hope the gear goes unused.

Fingers crossed for the rest of the season!

Cheers!
 
#43 ·
737sail has a very good point. Most insurance policies will have a section that deals specifically with named storms. If you don't follow the requirements of your policy, you may void your coverage. Also, you may find out that the insurance company will pay for the haulout or some of the costs of preparation for weathering a named storm.
 
#44 ·
a few more hurricane/marina thoughts

If you're weathering the storm in a slip:

Make sure your mast is several feet offset from the sailboat next to you - slide a few feet forward in your slip if necessary. When the boats get to rockin', you don't want your masts to tangle.

Tie your lines to stringers or pilings, not dock cleats which can easily pull out. And make them long to account for surge - if possible go 2 or 3 slips over.

If you're spidering to cleats or winches on your boat, and have 2 or more lines on one cleat, make sure they will pull in different directions so you don't overload.

Keep your mask & snorkel handy, you won't be able to breathe in the wind and rain.

I've herard some dispute over how to face - one reliable old salt I know always goes bow-out so he can make a quick getaway if necessary. Another equally-wise one puts his bow to the expected direction of greatest wind. You know your boat & your location, make your own judgement.
 
#50 ·
I'd wager that would work. The weak link in my situation is the dock itself. We had 40 kt winds roll through here last April, and an entire section sank. I could foresee the piles surviving, and even my boat surviving with the Kong tideminders -- only to have 200 linear feet of floating dock wrapped around my deck.
 
#51 ·
Be wary of haulout locale

Haulout seems to be the best option in the event of a storm but be sure that the yard/marina where you choose to haulout is a safe location. In 2004 when Ivan struck the Pensacola, FL area there were several marinas that had large dry storage facilities for power boats collapse. I'm sure most of us have seen these three and four level "boat shelves" Many sailboats were at these same yards. The result was a large, expensive mass of steel I-beams, sheet metal, boats both powered and sail, and other storm debris. I got to see one of these piles up close and believe me. It resembled a boat show that had been dropped from a passing aircraft. The boats that did survive were not able to get back in the water for a good while. Bottom line choose your yard carefully.
 
#56 ·
Haulout seems to be the best option in the event of a storm but be sure that the yard/marina where you choose to haulout is a safe location. In 2004 when Ivan struck the Pensacola, FL area there were several marinas that had large dry storage facilities for power boats collapse. I'm sure most of us have seen these three and four level "boat shelves" Many sailboats were at these same yards. The result was a large, expensive mass of steel I-beams, sheet metal, boats both powered and sail, and other storm debris. I got to see one of these piles up close and believe me. It resembled a boat show that had been dropped from a passing aircraft. The boats that did survive were not able to get back in the water for a good while. Bottom line choose your yard carefully.
That is true.

However, if you get hit head on with a 4-5, there probably is not a good place for your boat. I remember in Fort Myers they do a haul out. They strap the boats down. Sounds great, right?? Well, the issue is that they are about 4' over sea level. Any Hurricane of any strength is going to have a MUCH higher storm surge. Suddenly you have broken loose and floating with the jetsam!! Still, all you can do is your best and get off the tub. That is why we have insurance (hopefully).

- CD
 
#53 ·
LittleMissMagic - Eeeeeow! Never thought about the 'boat shelves!"

Rockter - Why would I want to go north for the winter, when there's no hurricanes in the Carib. either in winter? And it's warmer ;)
 
#54 ·
CD,
I am new to this forum sharing and just want to say that was good advice. I particularly like the bug spray advice as I had forgotten that. I lived through 04-05 hurricanes in Daytona Beach Fl, so how could I forget. Our sailboat had no damage after 5 hurricanes and I remember doing everything you said. We didnt stay aboard.
Good post,
pmesmer
 
#57 · (Edited)
Storm surge due to the slope of the continental shelf along the Gulf Coast makes no marina safe..Any major hurricane of Cat3 intensity is perfectly capable of bringing CAT5 conditions to any one area of the strike zone at any given time..Katrina was CAT3 at land fall yet produced a unheard of CAT5 surge of 30 ft in places...Do not let the cat numbers fool you...
 
#58 ·
CD,

Thanks for all of your advice. I just want to let the Floridians know that Florida has a new program: http://www.mysafefloridahome.com/ They will come out for FREE and inspect your home for hurricane readiness (ie. roof, windows, garage door...) We just had ours done last week, and should have our report in 4-6 weeks. Ironically, once you receive your report, you can receive a grant up to $5,000 for replacement door, windows, roof improvements, etc. that they recommend (pretty much, it is 50% replacement reimbursement). We'll keep you guys posted on how the whole process goes, as we were planning to replace our old windows, patio and garage doors anyways (since they do not meet Florida hurricane standards.)

Chris :)
US 30' Wu-Wei
http://www.diysailor.com
 
#60 ·
I'm glad my boat normally is behind the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier.
 
#62 ·
OK, this is a long, somewhat humorous, somewhat distressing story of how the process of securing a hurricane hiding spot can get a bit crazy. To set the scene, St. John in the USVI is home to Hurricane Hole (HH) with a number of well protected mangrove bays that have been used for many years as a place of shelter for boats during a storm. HH was USVI territorial waters and thus managed by the USVI gov. It was 1st come 1st served for space and boats laid ground tackle and tied to mangroves. Then, President Clinton created the Coral Reef Nat. Monument which included HH as the US had always laid claim to the area, but never took it. So, now that the Nat Park is managing the resource, it changed regulations and installed huge chains on the bottom in many of the sheltered bays and did a lottery system for spots. No more tying to mangroves. Last year's lottery system had some issues, so they went back to the old system, and here are the results from another author (I have verified the events with others who were there):
____
Subject: The St. John Gold Rush Mooring Ball Permit Procurement of 2008 - craziest thing I have ever witnessed.

It has been decades since I wrote articles for my college newspaper and a looong time since I have been compelled to write an article at all. However, this true story that took place yesterday was so crazy and ridiculous that I felt compelled to write this one down. I apologize in advance that my writing skills are sketchy, my grammar rusty, and I will not be taking the time to edit, or use a thesaurus to appear witty - but the story is there. You may pass it on, print it up, or plagiarize it - I don’t really care. Here is the story of how Passion and I procured “Water Creek Mooring Ball number 1” in Hurricane Hole, St. John.

To procure a mooring ball permit in St. John’s Hurricane Hole in Coral Bay this year was one of the most bizarre episodes since the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush.

The rules were simple – on Saturday June 28th at 9am they would line up a bunch of dinghies at a start line – blow a horn – and the dinghies would race (yes race) to a mooring ball – grab the mooring ball and replace it with a ball of their own with their boats name on it. At first the idea was to attach your ball to the existing mooring ball to claim your spot and that was that. But they soon realized “What was to stop others from cutting off your ball and replacing it with theirs?” – nothing. So it was revised that you would have to take off the park’s mooring ball with the assigned plot number on it and bring the ball to the near by national park boat and give them the registration number of your boat that you were getting this ball for.

Of first hearing of this one would say, “Surely this is a joke”. There would seem to be in the modern year of 2008 a more diplomatic system then pitting boat owners against boat owners to savagely race for a mooring to procure a safe spot for their floating palaces in the event of a hurricane. A lottery of sorts maybe? A friendly drinking game perhaps?
At first this event (now dubbed by the locals as the “Gold Rush”) was originally scheduled for June 28th. Then for some reason was changed to June 21st. On June 21st, ironically enough, a tropical wave came through canceling the affair. Disgruntled sail boaters who took off work the previous day to sail over to Coral Bay for this were not happy and went home empty handed and in a bad mood. It then again got pushed to June 28th.

So on Saturday June 28th in St. Thomas my alarm went off at 6am and my buddy Passion and I headed to the St. Thomas yacht club to jump on our dinghy to head to the far west side of St. John. We luckily had a good sized dink – 14 feet with a 30hp engine. On a good day we could have gotten to Coral Bay in about 40 minutes. It was not a good day. The wind and seas were rough and right on our nose. To make matters worse there was a small separation of the pontoon of the dinghy to the hull on our port bow. We were taking on water when we hit a wave – which was about every 15 seconds. Luckily the leak was not too bad and we were able to bail at a sufficient rate. The ride was not a pleasant one and we got a bit beat up but noted that this was still better than being in rush hour traffic in New York City or any major city for that matter. The sun was shining and the water that splashed on us was warm.

When we came into Coral Bay we were surprised to not see any activity going on. We did not see any boats at the mouth of Hurricane Hole where we figured the start line would have been. We were to meet up with a fellow St. Thomas buddy who stayed the night before and borrowed a local’s dink. We figured we had plenty of time to meet up with our buddy, plan our course of action and execute. At that time we did not realize that it actually took us an hour and 40 minutes to get here and that the race was about to happen.

We saw a national park boat in Hurricane Hole with about 3 other dinks. We thought this to be very odd. We went up to the national park boat and asked if the “race” was still on. They said “yes”. They also asked us if we were aware that it was 2 minutes to 9am. We were not. However, we didn’t seem too concerned as we only saw a few other dinghies around. We knew that we wanted to go to Water Creek which was one of 4 bays of protection in Hurricane Hole. We asked the park ranger where that particular bay was and he pointed to a bay in the distance. Figuring this was the starting line we asked if we could go there now. They said, “Sure by the time you get there the start signal would go off”. Thinking how stupid this whole thing was we revved up the engine and headed that way to claim a spot. As we got closer to the bay everything started to make more sense. We saw a bunch of dinghies lined up in this one bay. The start line was not at the mouth entrance to Hurricane Hole - it was at the entrance to each bay or “creek” as they called them in Hurricane Hole. As we approached the massive amount of sitting dinghies in a row from behind the horn blew. We were already underway and simply throttled up and blew completely through all of the boats right as the horn went off. The timing could not have been more perfectly aligned for us. We raced down deep into the bay without any previous knowledge of where we wanted to go. We were clearly in the lead of the race and had first dibs so we just went as far deep in and to the far left as we could. We spotted the ball we wanted, through the dink in neutral and I grabbed the ball. The ball was completely taught on the line and did not have enough line attached to it to actually be brought into the boat. So there I am half in the dink and half of me out of it hugging this ball as if my life depended on it. To my horror I realized that the boat did not actually go in neutral making holding onto to the boat with my lower body and the ball with my upper body very challenging. Passion seeing my struggle yelled “Let go! Let go!” – I yelled back “ No I will not let go” - imagining someone taking it from us the minute I did. She yells again “Let go let go” – I yell back again ‘”Nooo – throw the dink in neutral – I am not letting go”. I almost lost my grip and was about to jump into the water to stay with the ball but Passion throws the dinghy in neutral just in time. Funny thing was that I was not even doing this for me – I was doing this for Passion and her husband and their sailboat – I thought of how disappointed Passion’s husband would have been in me if we were this close and I let go. I did not want to go back to St. Thomas without the permit. We untied the park ball and tied ours on it. Okay it did take us a little while to figure out what exactly we were supposed to do. The ball was tightly secured to a line which passed through the ball. We thought maybe we were supposed to cut the ball off – maybe? – we did not have a knife. Another dink who had already secured their spot came by to help holding a leatherman. We found that we were to simply untie the knot at the top which really wasn’t that tightly knotted. We tied our ball with the name on it as instructed to the line. Then we took the park’s ball to the national park boat where all the other dinks, who had their treasured balls, went to claim the plots of water as theirs. The park officials on the boat eventually came to our dink as we were hanging off their boat. They took the ball and started taking down Passion’s boat information. I did not like the fact that we could not leave with a receipt or any documentation stating that this was in deed our plot. So I took a photo of Passion and the park official exchanging information and the treasured ball. The official was clearly not happy about that. He sternly looked my way and in a very angry voice yelled “Why are you taking my photo?” and then stared me down. I was thinking “Well this is one of the dumbest things I have ever witnesses and I wanted footage (and proof) of it”. What I did say however was “umm well ahh”. My other buddy on the other dink saved me with a “She thinks you are a handsome fellow”. He broke the stare, grunted a little and continued on his business. And that is how Passion and I procured “Water Creek Mooring Ball number 1” at the Gold Rush of 2008.

After the Gold Rush we proceeded to a local bar with some of the other participating dinghies with their own stories of success and failure. We heard that there had been dinghies out there since before 7am hanging onto mooring balls already and trying to make their claims. As it got closer to race time a national boat came by and on a loud speaker yelled at everyone to get away from the mooring balls and get back to the mouth of the bay. Some boats were actually anchored in the bay and were told that they were subject to a citation. All the anchored boats lifted their anchors and the dinghies let go of their pre-claimed balls that they had been hanging onto to go up on the imaginary starting line at the mouth of Water Creek.

As 9am approached dinghies were lined up revving up their engines. Some veered over the imaginary line and quickly got scolded by the park authorities to get back. Everyone was sizing up the competition and seeing who they can beat and who they couldn’t. There were even two guys on kayaks who were at the misfortune of not having a running powered dink and had to make due with what they had. Needless to say they did not get a spot. Not everyone did. There were more dinghies than there were balls. If we would have showed up a minute later we would not have gotten a spot. There were some dinghies that came from St. Thomas who missed the race by 5 minutes and ended up empty handed. That could have easily been us. The only thing that saved us was dumb luck.

Back at the bar someone had told us that the locals had actually had a meeting the night before to try and pre-claim these spots. It seemed civil enough. They got together, figured out who had what sized boat and figured out how this would best work for all of them. Sort of like – “okay Roger you claim ball number 5” and “Bob you will get ball number 10” and so on. This would have been fine if we were all invited to this little meeting – turns out boaters from St. Thomas were not. It was even implied that we “stole” someone else’s ball – there was a lot I wanted to say about that but instead politely bit my tongue.

Passion and I talked our buddy from St. Thomas into coming back with us. The boat was taking on a little water and it would be good to have a third person on board (if nothing else for a food source should we be sent adrift). We asked him “How would like to come back to St. Thomas with two hot chicks?” Pretty sure we were not looking so hot at the time but we also may have said that we would go topless. He agreed to come back with us. The leak started off as it did when we came over – hit a wave a gush of water spat in between the floor on the forward port side in between the pontoon and hull. As we approached Rams Head the situation got worse and the pontoon separated even farther down the boat. We were taking on more water than we could bail. We looked at the crashing waves onto Rams Head which did not seem like a friendly place to be so we bailed and prayed as we crested the corned and somehow got safely into Salt Pond where we grabbed a mooring ball, bailed the dink, and re-grouped. Without the pounding of the waves the boat did not take on water just sitting there or even underway without waves to pound into. We decided to continue on hugging the coast line. We called a friend to let someone know that we were out there and in some danger of the boat completely breaking up. We asked him to send for someone to look for us if we he did not hear back from us in an hour.

Luckily we made it back to St. Thomas without incident. We procured our mooring ball plots that we went over there for and hopefully will not have to use. We are hoping that all of our fellow boaters find a safe place in the event that we do.

Safe Boating.
 
#64 ·
that is just insane.
 
#65 · (Edited)
Paloma has been on the Gulf Coast (or as the marine insurors call it: Hurricane Alley) for all 29 of her years and has been the unfortunate benefactor of numerous hurricanes and tropical storms (tropical storms on the Gulf can actually be worse because they tend to drive a higher storm tide i.e in '79 Claudette drove a 12 foot storm tide up bays and the bayous to more than 40 miles north of the Gulf - that sunk a lot of boats in their slips and caused some floating docks to float up and off of their pilings - along with putting knee-deep water in our house) others Paloma has made it through are Alicia, Katrina, other named storms that didn't make hurricane stregnth and a number of false alarms. Here's my ritual that I've done over a dozen times to date (thank goodness some were false alarms) and have sustained no damage other than in Alicia when a Tayana 37 broke loose and stacked up against a C&C 30 that snuggled up to the boat - you can't plan or prepare for those kinds of events:
1. I fabricated tide-risers on the bollards so that she can ride up on the storm tide.
2. At the time of the "alert", don't wait for the "warning" or you may spend the storm on the boat, I go down to the boat and remove all electonics, paper charts, propane bottles, etc and put them in the trunk of the car; remove and stow the dock power cord; make sure all the through hulls are closed; remove the bimini and bungee the bimini frame to the backstay; remove all the hatch, companionway and grab handle canvas; roll the furling headsail further up with 8-10 loops of line around it, then wrap a line from about mid-point all the way down; lower the aft end of boom to the cabin top and secure it to one of the grab rails, then wrap line around the headail cover starting above the cover on the mast and continuing all the way back to the aft end of the boom; double up the lines to the bollards, add additional spring lines and put out extra fenders.
3. Then drive home, get a cup of coffee and re-read your insurance policy.

I've seen people do more (remove the main and the roller furling - their boats didn't fair any better than Paloma) and I've seen them do less, which includes the idiots who do nothing, and have seen headsail furlers unwind and wreak real havoc as the boat tries to sail out of the slip while shredding the headsail. In one case, in the high winds of Alicia, I saw one break the headstay at the mast fitting, which whipped across the dock and left a nasty crease in the cabin trunk of an otherwise beautifully restored Columbia 34.
Whew!! Almost added Dolly to the list of hurricanes that Paloma has endured - barely dodged a bullet on Dolly, she went ashore about 125 miles South of us - lots of rain and a little wind - but was it.
 
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