Those in Tropical
Australia are at risk from November through to the end of April.
It used to be the end of March---but Planetary
Overheating is extending the season and temperatures are higher these days. Never mind. Our pollies want the world to burn more coal--so unless "Campaign Contributions" are outlawed, we can expect Hurricanes, Typhoons, Cyclones or whatever name on e chooses for severe circular tropical storms, are going to be bigger and more frequent occurrences.
Once a Cat 5 storm was considered unlikely. Now it is not uncommon for a storm to reach such
wind speeds as to qualify. One destroyed much of
New Orleans. here we have been lucky so far.
So--what to do about it if you have the usual week's notice--something early mariners did not get--hence so many shipwrecks in the tropics.
It is the
wind, rather than the deluge, likely to cause the most damage. The next most damaging thing one needs to worry about is the tidal surge--which can be sufficient to dislodge anchors, snap cyclone ropes, rip out your
deck fittings and
lift your vessel out of the shelter of most of the mangroves in which is was less exposed to one much higher, where the wind force can be greater.
What I have done in the past was to use very long ropes, and tie off to substantial mangroves in a sheltered creek with a hill on one side and a bit of a bank on the other. Now all I have to worry about is headwind--and that is less of a problem in a creek because one will get horizontal spray and leaves at high velocity, twigs etc, rather than huge waves. I use long ropes so that, if I were to remain aboard, I would be below decks as much as possible. Long ropes do not need frequent, if any, adjustment for tide or surge.
Everything is taken below,
sails bagged and stowed, hatches lashed shut, sliding doors closed and locked, storm shutters fitted over any large areas of glass. These are made easily from heavy
plywood, and fitted over the windows using either over-centre lock-downs, bolts, or just lashings and rings. They are to stop flying projectiles breaking your glass and allowing rain at over 100 KPH to come in as if someone shoved a fire hose into your
cabin. They will make it dark inside--so LED lamps and a good
battery is essential.
Having done all of that--I chose not to remain aboard--and evacuated with my
family leaving the
boat on its anchors fore and laterally set, long ropes fore and aft, heavy fender-boards alongside the vessel facing the bank and large heavy fenders behind them. My four main ropes are 20 mm nylon, each of them able to hold the boat's entire weight, if the
deck fittings would allow it.
I took the
tender with me on a
trailer, we used it to leave the vessel.
This is what happened to those who could not be bothered shifting their boats, did not know how, were absent overseas or just left them there on the
advice that they would not be insured if they left the marina, elected NOT to escape into the mangroves.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=C...JkTUGfbfc3E3M:
This was a full Cat 5. Where I was in the creek, the winds were comparatively mild. My masthead anemometer read 175KPK (I do not think it was knots) in this sheltered spot.
When I returned, the boat was COVERED in branches, the
batteries were flat, but the
bilge pumps had kept the water below problem depth--and there would not have been any problems but for leaves blocking the cockpit drains and allowing the water level to reach the bottom of the wheelhouse doors. First thing I did was to put larger drains baffles and pipes with flaps under the wing decks to ensure this could not happen again.
There was a small scratch in the
paint on the deck just below where the ropes came aboard to secure to the large horn
cleats. Not the ropes chafing, but a bit of driftwood, had lodged there. That was it--nothing else, Bloody amazing. I had, after seeing what happened to the boats a few miles down the coast where the centre crossed, expected to see my
mast sticking out of the water.
So--long ropes--some of mine are 100 feet long. I bought two rolls of 20 mm nylon, 100 metres on each. One I keep aside for possible
anchor rode in deep water, the other I use for cyclone ties--along with some other ropes bough at different times. Nylon stretches--not a bad thing. It is EXTREMELY strong--and the only other thing I might mention is that I use multiple turns or
rope around a mangrove tree before tying my bowline.
Single turns damage the trees if they are given a really hard pull.