Saturday, October 27, 2012

Getting Ready for Sandy

Friday night I drove down to Norfolk to make sure we were ready for Hurricane Sandy. Because the apparent track of the storm had it missing Norfolk by several hundred miles I elected to keep the boat in the marina and prepare it to weather the storm there.

On the way down I picked up 150 feet of 3/4" nylon/polyester blend rope to upsize the dock lines. The current lines are 5/8" and some of the spring lines are 1/2". Friday night the wind was relatively mild so I dropped and stowed the roller furling headsail. Angela from the marina and Mike helped me get the sail put away, it would have been a much less pleasant job without them.

First thing Saturday morning - before the rain started I installed the two stern chocks that I'd purchased at my last visit to Bacon Sails in Annapolis. This let me properly cross tie the stern lines which really improved the angles to the dock cleats. It also allowed me to better control the boats position in the slip. I was also able to duct tape the forward vents, they are old and stiff and I wasn't ready to fight with them to put the caps on the vents.

At this point the rain started to fall, lightly. The next step was adjusting the existing dock lines and rigging the new larger lines. I made two 30' and one 50' line to supplement the existing lines. After cutting, splicing and whipping the lines I added them as bow and spring lines. Also added chafe gear to the lines using sections of hose zip tied to over the line.

The whole day Saturday at the Marina reminded me of Minnesota before a big snow storm, everyone was out getting ready sharing supplies and advice on how to best prepare.

By the end of the day it was raining pretty hard and blowing 25 knots, everything appeared in order on the boat so I met up with Zach and Susan Nelson for dinner to discuss the next leg of the trip back to Charleston.


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