I Never Sleep Well Before A Storm

[rebel heart]

I know I should, and I still managed ~5 hours, but I'm always up and antsy. So much to check on in advance. Weather updates for track and intensity, chafe gear (anchored), leak-proofed (lol), etc.

[atoll]

good luck!

keep a bottle of rum handy for medicinal purposes!

having a dive mask handy will allow you to see if it gets really wet and windy, when checking your ground tackel at the bow

[rebel heart]

Thanks. This is #3 for the year and it's just a tropical storm and the track has it passing further and further away. It's my first year in a hurricane zone, during hurricane season, so I'm a little jumpy about these things.

What really blows me away is the speed that they can show up. It goes from being a blob on NOAA's radar with a 20% chance of formation, it moves at 100-200 miles a day, strengthens, and is on your doorstep within 96 hours.

[Dockhead]

Join the club. Nor do I sleep well the night before an early start on a long passage. Too much excitement and anticipation. Oh well. As a result, I sometimes prefer to just leave after dinner and sail overnight -- not going to sleep anyway, so why not?

Good luck with your storm!

[atoll]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Thanks. This is #3 for the year and it's just a tropical storm and the track has it passing further and further away. It's my first year in a hurricane zone, during hurricane season, so I'm a little jumpy about these things.

What really blows me away is the speed that they can show up. It goes from being a blob on NOAA's radar with a 20% chance of formation, it moves at 100-200 miles a day, strengthens, and is on your doorstep within 96 hours.

the faster they move the faster they pass!
allways good to be a bit pro-active though,

where i am during the winter we regularly get 60 knot blows coming through,with good ground tackel and some hills around us after 45 knots the winds just blow over the top

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Join the club. Nor do I sleep well the night before an early start on a long passage. Too much excitement and anticipation. Oh well. As a result, I sometimes prefer to just leave after dinner and sail overnight -- not going to sleep anyway, so why not?

Good luck with your storm!

Funny enough on the long passages I'm okay. Usually I'm hustling so hard to get ready on those last few days on the dock that by 10pm I'm out cold. I do like to try to get up early though and slip the docklines around dawn. Usually dead winds, no pelican club standing around commenting, and I can take it super slow.

[barnakiel]

I sleep like a log.

When anchored, I will have 16 anchors our with some 2k feet of chain. That's as much as I can do.

Offshore, I will be reefed, with decks clean, crew clipped in and sailing a course that I hope will get us to somewhere safely.

Then the next logical thing is to get max rest just in case I will need my stamina to address any issues.

I think sleep / rest management are one of the huge difference between sailors. And it is a skill.

b.

[S/V Alchemy]

So have you taken to hanging six to eight foot lengths of 1/4 inch line over the pulpits? You know, because you might need to lash something in a hurry.

[Crimea Cruiser]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I know I should, and I still managed ~5 hours, but I'm always up and antsy. So much to check on in advance. Weather updates for track and intensity, chafe gear (anchored), leak-proofed (lol), etc.

Just sounds like the norm to me... being a conscientious sailor and boat owner. Good luck!

This too shall pass.

[SaltyMonkey]

The slow ones are the ones to worry about

[deckofficer]

Eric,

I know it isn't much consolation but you are in one of the best hidey holes for that area, the wife and girls are 1/4 mile away in A/C comfort, and in two months while the rest of us are going into the deep freeze season, you will have delightful weather for the next 7 months.

So it won't be long before all of us here are wishing we were there, enjoy.

[Ocean Girl]

Rode out hurricane Frances ( i think was frances ) aboard my trawler, with my little sailboat to starboard and my parents boat to port, they were out of town. So I had to watch over three boats. Stayed up the whole night while my boyfriend slept like a log . Nearby boat chafed through, had to secure it. My parents wind generator broke loose, tried to secure it but no way in hell that was going to happen. We saw maybe 60 knots, 4 foot waves in the marina, crazy.

I hope all goes well, will be praying for a nice calm time for you and your family.

[Geoduck]

When I was fishing for a living,we would just shut down at night and drift - the whole fleet - you would get up every once and awhile to make sure someone wasn't about to drift down on you and tear your trolling poles off in the middle of the night when it was blowing 40. One night I drifted 17 miles! I hated that! I would have to fire up and jog back to where the fish were at 3 o'clock in the morning so I wouldn't miss the morning bite!
What a life!
Arrrrg! Pass me another cabin boy, Jim!!!

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I know I should, and I still managed ~5 hours, but I'm always up and antsy. So much to check on in advance. Weather updates for track and intensity, chafe gear (anchored), leak-proofed (lol), etc.

If I know a storm is coming I do a couple of things:

All alcohol is now off the consumption list. It may be hard enough to keep your footing without its "help," and you may have to go above, or even out of the cockpits. You need to have your wits, and your best sense of balance, with you.

I sleep in clothes. Normally I sleep in pajamas. I have a pair of those jeans advertised as "pajama jeans." They're comfy enough to sleep in but function and look like real "clothes," and an old t-shirt. I havev on occasion slept in shoes. While that sounds uncomfortable, it gave me peace of mind.

I check all lines.

I put extra lines out, bow and aft, ready to be used if something needs to be re-secured.

That's not everything I do; standard disclaimer applies (it's not intended to be a complete list).

It's some things I do that I have found useful that others might consider.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Thanks. This is #3 for the year and it's just a tropical storm and the track has it passing further and further away. It's my first year in a hurricane zone, during hurricane season, so I'm a little jumpy about these things.

What really blows me away is the speed that they can show up. It goes from being a blob on NOAA's radar with a 20% chance of formation, it moves at 100-200 miles a day, strengthens, and is on your doorstep within 96 hours.

The thing that concerns me most about the TS's is that while NOAA is pretty good at predicting where it will go, they're not so good at predicting how strong they will be. Even their category system is pretty flawed -- Sandy was "just" a tropical storm and re-defined as "extra-tropical" as she made landfall. While the meteorologists knew exactly what that did and did not mean, it was actually a pretty esoteric change.

Unfortunately, many people on land thought that changing it to "extra-tropical" meant *dropping* its danger level, when in fact it was joining up with a potent no're easter (sp) to become a vicious storm.

Katrina was "only" a Category 3 hurricane when she came ashore, but did much more damage than Charley, a strong Category 4 when it came ashore. And if the people in the Charlotte Harbor area had paid attention to the fact that they really were in the storm's potential path and had boarded up and taken basic precautions, much of Charley's damage could have been avoided.

IMO we think we have better information than we really do when it comes to tropical storms. They can intensify rapidly, and their potential paths are much wider than the tracks displayed by the various models.