Hurricane Florence

[GaryBode]

Should have sailed north five days before Florence landed.

[GaryBode]

During hurricane Sandy, all the boats anchored/moored in Sandy Hook Bay (NJ) with twice the recommended ground tackle connected to a bridal on the bow survived because they were able to deal with the surge.

[dkenny64]

sorry to hear the 5 boats lost in broad creek..we almost went there to weather out the storm... we might have made it..on primary anchor is all chain..


about snubbers..why over the roller?

I ran 2 snubbers to our all chain rode...one on each side the bow to their own cleat with chafe guard.. the other anchor had about 4ft of chain and 150ft rode.


chafe guard..what's wrong with heavy leather? gets wet..stays wet..doesn't wear...I do understand why PVC hose is bad..

our boat survived tied to trees up river passed New Bern with both anchors our..
next time I going to add a battery powered bilge pump in the cockpit..the drains plugged..only a little water got inside..



-dkenny64

[contrail]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

There was 60 feet of chain on each anchor plus a rope rode attached to the chain. one rode was 5/8 and one was 3/4. I don't know how much rope rode he had payed out, but he was hanging on the rope plus the chain.

The snubber should not be oversized. You want it to stretch and you can replace it after the storm. I rode out a Cat 1 direct hit on a 3/8 inch snubber for a 33 foot boat. It stretched almost twice its length but held. The boats with big heavy snubbers snapped theirs. The Dashews go into this in detail.

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by GaryBode

Should have sailed north five days before Florence landed.

Sure in hindsight. But 5 days prior to landfall the chesapeake was very much in play.

I totally get the idea of getting your boat out of the way. But suppose you move the boat. And now the hurricane track wobbles to where you have moved to? Now you have find a marina to trust who is busy with all of their slipholders, or a new hurricane hole somewhere outside your cruising grounds and hope you can figure out holding? Oh yeah, also figure out where you will be staying and how you’ll get there.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of outrunning a hurricane in theory to save your boat. That forecast better be rock solid though.

[jimbunyard]

Originally Posted by GaryBode

Should have sailed north five days before Florence landed.

Five days out, believe the more often proscribed 'avoidance strategy' would have been to sail southwest, and would certainly have been more appropriate in this instance, where one would have avoided the 'dangerous semicircle' entirely and predominately offshore winds suppressed water levels.

Good standard advice if you're in the Southern Hemisphere though...

[RTB]

We had many boats come to this marina in Brunswick, Ga. All the way from Wilmington, N.C., Myrtle Beach, and Charleston. Running offshore for two or three days for most. The ICW would sure slow you down, so you need the right weather to run outside.

Once the track started showing a turn SW, two boats here ran to St. Augustine to be safe. Was not necessary as it turned out, but there was a bit of concern here for a day or two. Funny, some others wanted to head farther south, but their insurance wanted them north of 30.5*, which we are (barely). Strange to see boats running TO Florida for safety with a hurricane. It's been a strange season. No doubt, the ones that moved south made the right decision.

[GaryBode]

Well considering most boat insurances don't cover going south in hurricane season I would op to go north. Plus, if you run into another storm while going south further into the hurricane zone now you're really screwed. Sail North for a few days or go up river. once you get a hundred miles from the eye the winds are significantly less. I can deal with rain.

[mjscottinnc]

In New Bern, NC my boat survived with no damage. In her slip, tied to a fixed dock. Doubled up 3/4" dock lines fore and aft, doubled up 5/8" spring lines port /starboard, fore/aft. Prior to landfall the lines were tied to keep the boat in the slip with a 15-foot river rise. One set of lines to the dock cleats/pilings, one set of lines to the 6" x 6" seawall reinforcing planks. I did not remove my mainsail or furled headsail. I did tie a safety line around the furled headsail, in case any of the control lines let go (which they did not). Wind generator propeller tied down to prevent rotation. Wind generator and radar each on a 9-foot pole, two / 6-foot x 4-foot solar panels mounted on their own frame above the Bimini, radar reflector hanging from the port spreader, passive and active wind instruments on the mast head.


The reality: 12.6 foot of surge, in 1/3 of the slips the dock lines were too short and ripped the cleat or cleat and plank off the dock, about 50% of the blocked boats floated off their stands, 2 boats sunk days after the hurricane due to no power recharging battery / operating bilge pump.


Marina power was out for a week, but my solar panels kept both battery banks fully charged. (important point to remember)

[RTB]

Originally Posted by GaryBode

Well considering most boat insurances don't cover going south in hurricane season I would op to go north. Plus, if you run into another storm while going south further into the hurricane zone now you're really screwed. Sail North for a few days or go up river. once you get a hundred miles from the eye the winds are significantly less. I can deal with rain.

There was no other storm approaching the East Coast of the U.S, that I saw at the time. I would be inclined to choose the weak side of the storm if running. That would be south in this case, and the choice most made. Winds around 20 mph days after landfall, no surge, and not even any rain.

[hpeer]

MJSCOTTINNC,
Good for you and your prep.

I heard one thing special in your description, that you tied to the sea wall to keep the boat off. I wonder how folks on an inside slip would have done that.

Did you tie to the docks or the pilings? My old marina would NEVER allow me to tie to pilings. We had an old tug converted to pleasure do that one night, the lines to the pilings held that side of the docks down, but they tried to float anyway (6’ tide) and the twist did a lot of damage to the docks, really bad. I once tried to tie to pilings underneath the dock connection, got severally reprimanded.

[mjscottinnc]

I'm on an inside slip. The seawall is under the head of the dock, when looking from the slip toward land. That seawall is corrugated metal sheets which are interlocked and about 2 foot down from the top are 6" x 6" wood plank strapping that is through bolted to each sheet. Each slip has 2 pilings at the aft end of the slip and one piling for the finger pier. I tied to all of them. I've been places where piling have been pulled out during storms before, but with this type setup there is really not other way.



When I was setting my lines during prep I noticed how much movement there was with the cleats and it looked as if they were just screwed to the dock planks not through bolted, so I did not trust them. One set of lines ran to the cleats, and another set of lines were tied to the 6"x6" planking with the line passing through the open part of the corrugation.


With 55 slips, I'd venture to say that 15 to 20 cleats or cleat/planks failed. Cleats completely pulled out, cleats with partial planks were tore out, and entire planks pulled completely off the dock, all occurred in about equal measure.