Storm! More fun than Disney World!

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robedney

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WOW! My first real winter storm while living on this boat and it was a humdinger! I stayed up most of the night checking on things. It's a big boat with lots of windage (will be somewhat less soon). I wasn't worried about the boat or my lines, I was worried about the aging dock and it's ability to hold me. At one point I was able to stand on deck aft of the main cabin -- pouring rain and driving wind -- and stay bone dry. The rain was falling sideways, not just now and then, but constantly. The sound was incredible. The motion wasn't too bad due to the size and design of the boat. At the height of it my temporary (vinyl) front windows blew out in the main cabin and there was enough pressure to blow a 3 by 5 foot heavy hatch off the cabin top! That cabin is currently shop space, to the problem was minimal.

Anyway, aside from the ragged nerves worrying about the dock, it was actually a lot of fun. I have several lines out, including four tied directly to pilings. One of those runs 100' to a newer concrete piling and is my safety net in case the others go -- as is the anchor at the ready on the bow. The spring lines took most of the strain -- thanks be for nylon!

This is a 58' steel trawler probably somewhere around 50 net tons. By the by, I've new admiration for ducks.

Robert
 
Congratulations Robert. That sounds like one of those experiences people never forget.

My kudos for sticking it out like you did.

I went out to Andrus Island on Thursday evening to check on lines and do what I could to convince myself the boat would be OK during the storm.

I checked the boat again on Saturday morning and everything was OK. Not a scratch. A couple of live aboards told me the tale of what it was like on Friday. Wind gusting over 60 MPH. Boats in covered slips did OK, but but even then the wind was driving rain horizonally right into the sheds. One guy told me that the wind just blew rain right under snapped canvas where it gurgled into the boat. Another guy was berthed on the north side of the building. He stepped out of the boat for a few seconds and when he got back in he was completely soaked. The was no power on the south side of the island when I was there on Saturday.

I saw several boats with shredded canvas in a couple of the marinas. Some got bumped around in the slip a little bit. All in all, it could have been a lot worse. That storm in January two years ago pruned some of trees already. Wind damage on Andrus Island seemed to be worse with that storm.
 
When word of the pending storm became convincing enough last Thursday I made a trip to check on my slip situation, sitting right on the bay and fully exposed to the wind. It was already kicking up good, and I doubled my lines for a total of eight. Good solid docks with sound pilings. All canvas wrap up and snapped as best it can be, and I added bungee cords wherever it was possible. Things went fine. Plenty of water gets by the canvas and in to the cockpit area which drains reasonably well but still a bit overflows and into the bilge where three pumps are standing by. So no problems...

However! Other boats not so good. There are those hardly ever used or visited, and those marginal in their ability to remain afloat even in summer. Plenty suffered. Two sitting firmly in the mud, but they are both well past time for the junkyard. Lots of stripped canvas.

What I haven't heard yet is how things went at the yacht club. We had six boats rafted together stern tie to our dock, and that's a lot of exposure to wind with a large masss to catch it. I mentioned this to the owners at the time but they elected to keep things as-is. I would have opted to break away and side tie on my own.

That said...I weathered things at my place in the hills. Getting out of the Bay Area was the biggest chore with two hours of back roads due to all the major roads being closed or choked. Going through Woodland area many roads were flooded and we crawled through slowly so as not to splash water into the engine compartment. Yuba City entirely without power and one hour to get across it due to no traffic lights and some kind of bridge outage. Total time to Grass Valley four hours, nearly double the norm. Lots of power outages and downed trees, power poles cracked and ready to collapse, three car double fatality. But no snow which would have made things bad.

Our place had power and no problems at all, but most were without power. Since everybody has a woodstove the heating issue isn't a problem but water can be because many of us use well water and without power there is no pump. Also electric is the typical means of cooking so as to conserve propane, but most people have an old Coleman twin burner camping stove for these events. Many people travel with a small chainsaw in the car/truck during the winter to deal with blocked roads.

All of which is to say there is a very different set of problems to deal with resulting from a serious storm depending on where you are, and I got to observe both. In the end i never spilled my wine - so it was not too bad!
 
When I got to my marina Friday night, the power was out and it was pitch black. Could hardly see where I was walking. To make matters worse, my generator was down. The week prior I thought that I would put off the repair until the following week. Bad choice.

I was fortunate to find another guy on the dock to help me with the repairs. After an hour or so we figured out the problem, got it running, turned on the heat, and opened up the beers.
 
Forgot to add - Robert, one thing I truly enjoy is staying aboard during rough weather. You must have had a blast! Particularly in such an ideal boat, although I wonder how you stayed warm?

Staying in a marina with the wind whipping through the sailboat masts sounds wonderful to me, and the movement of the boat in the slip, all things working well, storm raging outside - it's about as good as it gets. Hope you had someone to share it with!
 
I saw a woman on TV news last night complaining that her power had been out since last Thursday. Now that can be a challenge, but her biggest "complaint" was that she hadn't been able to take a shower! For goodness sake, why didn't she drive to a motel for the night if it was that bad??????

I get tired of the belly aching and blaming the power companies. Folks are becoming way too soft, IMHO.
 
quote:
Originally posted by kevfra

Forgot to add - Robert, one thing I truly enjoy is staying aboard during rough weather. You must have had a blast! Particularly in such an ideal boat, although I wonder how you stayed warm?

Staying in a marina with the wind whipping through the sailboat masts sounds wonderful to me, and the movement of the boat in the slip, all things working well, storm raging outside - it's about as good as it gets. Hope you had someone to share it with!

Click to expand...
I was looking forward to the storm too, but much of the bad weather had passed by the time I got up there. All I got was the aftermath and that was anything but fun. Sure, we got some rain, but there's nothing like being tucked safely in your boat with a storm raging outside.
 
Robert, do you have any pictures of your vessel? Sounds like an intresting craft.
 
Pics would be cool! sounds like a post christmass boom for the local canvas shops :)
 
Mike McManus:

Don't bet on a boom for your local canvas shop. It is going to take a while for the adjusters to take care of the canvas that is insured. And for the rest of the huddled masses, times are tough, and I suspect blue tarps will be the norm for a while.

As for me, has anyone seen a 5' in diameter black and silver sunbrella hot tub cover? Curt at West Coast had his guys make that thing for me early last year, and I sure would like to see it again. I swear it was there when I went to bed on Friday night. Probably wrapped around some guy's prop shaft, waiting for him to fire the boat up in the spring.

I was at Bruno's a couple of years ago when the island flooded on New Years eve. On New Years Day 2006, one berther recorded 68 knot winds in his slip. We did dock walks non-stop that afternoon. Lots of boats with rotten dock lines. The flood was on a Saturday morning and by Thursday we had the water off the island and the power back on.

Today I spoke to a friend who lives on the Loop who didn't get his power back on until Monday at dusk. Just as he was hooking up the generator he bought at Big 5!. Seems that Lodi Lowes was sold out.

Weather like this sorts out the sea worthy boats from the others.

FindMe, waiting for the next big one to land.
 
On New Years Eve that year, we went to town for a couple hours and when we came back, the middle of the ramp to our dock was under a foot of water. We had to wade across the cold water to get to the boat. But at least we had electricity.
 
quote:
Originally posted by UpperDecker

On New Years Eve that year, we went to town for a couple hours and when we came back, the middle of the ramp to our dock was under a foot of water. We had to wade across the cold water to get to the boat. But at least we had electricity.

Click to expand...

I remember that high water. I took some pictures at Spindrift on that New Year's day.

http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=78685
 
At Bruno's during that storm two years ago, the water was up to my crotch in many places, and if you wanted to cross the island in the wrong places, you would have to swim. I did not.

As another note about Bruno's..
They have a 60something by 20something floating home at the entrance of the island for a berther's clubhouse. Rumor has it that it was secured with (2) half inch dock lines for last Friday's storm. What is not rumor is that it broke loose and one end crashed into the the dock at Walton's marine, where it is now impaled.

Anyone here have a boat that big secured with two dock lines?

FindMe, tied up with (6) 5/8 dock lines.
 
Just kidding, we were at home, but I love storms....as long as no one gets hurt.

I often wondered if they offer a hurricane package for Miami, FL --- I would love to spend a week down there with a hurricane coming through. Of course, staying on the 4 floor with hurricane proof windows :) Wife says she can save us some money, I can get a room for 1.

Back in Tulsa, around 1958 or so, I stood on the cellar steps listening to the tornado coming our way until my mom pulled me down into the cellar. We heard a terrific crashing sound. After the all clear, we found a huge Maple tree laying across the street. It was about 60 feet from where we were. It would take two big men to reach around it.

We used to go to Chandler Park, overlooking the Arkansas River in Tulsa --- watching the storms come in --- until a tornado hit up there the night we WERE there. The cops yelled at us to leave and we did, when we got down to the bottom of the long hill I made 180 degree turn, and the kid with me swung out into mid air, hanging on to the door. Ah the good ole days. When drag racing was a xxx chewing by the local cop, speeding was normal and kids had fun. Regular gas was 28.9 --- oh well.
 
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