Hurricanes
In August and September of
2004, Florida was hit by four hurricanes; Charley, Frances,
Ivan, and Jeanne. The worst of these, Hurricane Ivan,
landed too far west to cause any damage to northeast
Florida, where I keep Candide. The other three,
however, certainly made liveaboard life interesting for a
few weeks.
I had several invitations
to stay with friends and family during these storms, but I
decided to stay on board. Some people thought I was
brave, some said I was crazy, and yet others thought that I
was just plain foolish. You can make up your own mind
after reading these pages.
Preparing for the Storm(s)
According to a Monty
Python skit, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! [Its]
chief weapon is surprise!" While this may have been
true of religion and political movements during the 15th
century, it is decidedly NOT true about hurricanes during
the modern age. Nobody in Florida was taken by
surprise during any of these storms. It was impossible
to escape the warnings about these storms. Radio,
television, and print media were all abuzz about each of the
impending storms. People started boarding up their
houses, which caused plywood to be in short demand
everywhere in the state. Grocery stores were being
depleted of bottled water, flashlight batteries, and
candles. Electric generators were disappearing from
hardware stores much faster than they could be replaced.
People everywhere talked about the coming storms.
Mothers (including mine) called their grown children to make
sure they'd stocked up on the essentials. All this was
happening several days before the first storm (Charley) was
to hit Florida. So, it was no surprise when Charley
finally did make landfall.
I had been out of town on
business until the day before Hurricane Charley made
landfall in Florida. This didn't give me much time to
prepare the boat, but fortunately I have good dock-mates who
did a few things for me while I was away. By the time
I had returned to Candide, they had already removed the sail
covers, dodger (kind of like a boat's "windshield" made from
clear plastic and canvas; it keeps the sea spray off the
folks in the cockpit), and bimini (which is a cover for the
cockpit). That mean that I could spend a few hours
before the storm doing things like filling the onboard water
tanks and buying food.
Fortunately, Charley
didn't do much damage to our area. We enjoyed a three
week break before the next hurricane, Frances, was to
arrive. This gave me time to truly prepare Candide for
a hurricane. As the picture below shows, everything
was removed from the deck. The dinghy (which normally
rests on top of the butterfly hatch in the center of the
deck) was put in the marina dinghy rack behind the
bathhouses. All three sails were taken off and stored
below in the aft cabin. Both booms were removed and
stored behind the marina bathhouse. Candide's wind
generator was taken down and stored below deck. The
dodger and bimini frames were lashed down.
Perhaps the most important
thing to consider in preparing for a major storm is how the
boat will be kept away from the dock. If the
boat comes into contact with any part of the dock during a
major storm, there is a very good chance of damage to both
the boat and the dock. Ideally, the boat would be tied
with dock lines so that it would stay in the dead center of
the slip during a storm. Unfortunately, with high
winds and large waves battering the boat, the dock lines
will stretch and the boat will move around considerably in
the slip.
During the first storm, I
had put out four extra dock lines to reinforce the six that
Candide normally uses. Four of these chaffed through
during Charley as they rubbed on various metal through-hull
fittings. Before Frances arrived, I paid a visit to
the city fire station to ask if they had any extra fire hose
I could have. After explaining why I needed it, they
were more than happy to fill the back of my car with eight
hoses that they had planned on throwing away!
Fire hose is wonderful
anti-chaffing gear for ropes. After all, its designed
to protect the rubber
The deal included four
functional tubes and a total of eight torpedoes. Now,
I'm not exactly sure what type of torpedoes these things
are, but it all sounded very good when they were explaining
my purchase to me in the German language (which I don't
speak). Regardless of my comprehension, the necessary
armament steps are quite straight-forward:
About those
torpedoes...they're nothing to sneeze at. In fact,
each of them is over 18' long and weigh about 2 tons.
The "screws" (that would be "propellers" for the lesser of
us) are a testament to the slave-labor, bronze-forging
artisans employed/coerced by the Nazis at the time.
I mean, come on!
Look at them! They're practically works of art!
So, anyway, that 420'
cargo ship that was demanding that I should change course?
Well, it took two shots but I sunk the bastard (the first
shot went astray and allegedly hit a Disney Cruise
Ship...but I'll let the lawyers sort all that out later).
The point is that that 420' container ship learned her
place! Just because a boat is small and under sail
doesn't mean she's not heavily armed!
Anyway, there's a fairly
new 420' artificial reef off the coast of St. Augustine
(Florida) if you'd like to check it out.
Please
drop me a line at:
robert@sleepingwithoars.com
©
2005 by Robert Doty
