Hurricane Harvey

[CharlieJ]

Just checked Tehani from parking lot. Can't get on docks

She broke a bow line but is riding against two huge fenders. Also has a broken spreader. So gonna need some work. But basically ok

Will look over yours as soon as I am allowed on dock. Woried about looters ya know

[ralay]

Glad to hear it.  If you fixed her after her dismasting, I'm sure you've got the skill to handle a spreader.  Bet you're happy to have spent the money for jumbo fenders an o have taken the time to double your lines and strip your boat.  There were a lot of boats in that video that still had awnings up, inflatables out, hardly any fenders, etc.  But maybe those folks had houses, kids, pets, elders or other more important things they needed to worry about before evacuation. 

[Frank]

Glad everyone here is ok, even if some boats didn't fair out so well...
Boats are things...
That said, what a sickening feeling seeing your boat down.
Hope things work out ok in the end for ya Joe.
I'm sure you feel very overwhelmed....
Keep us posted with your plans as things unfold.
Heart goes out to ya.....

[Jim_ME]

Joe, It was good to chat with you last night and learn that you are looking forward to moving ahead with your plans to cruise, despite this setback.

Grog to you! :)

[CharlieJ]

Finally was able to get aboard Tehani. All in all much better than I expected. Four broken doc k lines but some one fixed one of them. Kept her off the dock

Broken spreader. One turnbuckle missing center. Toe rail missing a section. Genoa track was on that section. One stanchion base destroyed. Stanchion un harmed. One fender gone with the wind

All in all pretty minor considering that directly across dock from me 7 boats are sunk. Including Cyric's. Joe-Just the mast sticking up but she did a number on the dock before she went!!

Nine or ten boats sunk and four or five washed ashore. i came out very fortunately. Sad to see the others though. Some nice boats went down

[ralay]

Glad to hear it CJ.  Did it give you any insight to share on what you would or wouldn't do to prepare for another storm?

[CharlieJ]

 Lol. Triple up the lines. Two of the ones that broke were doubled. Otherwise can't think of anything. I feel as if I did everything I could

After some thought decided to edit to add this

All of the lines that broke just broke. Not due to chafeor anything else. i suspect they got heavily shock loaded in the waves on top of the seven foot storm surge. Some sort of shock absorber cushioning in each line would have help immensely. i've seen several decent ideas and will try some out. Hopefully they won't be needed in a storm like this one again

[CapnK]

Joe -

Man I absolutely hate to hear that about your boat. :/

Tell you what, though - if you can borrow Tehani/CJ's trailer, come pick up Katie Marie. She needs putting back together, but all the pieces are there except for an outboard motor. I'd love for her to have a "home" with someone that'll take her cruising, and you need a boat.

Sounds like a match to me.  8)

[Cyric30]

First off. Thank You ALL for the Thoughts and Support

At this point i don't know what i will do moving forward. There is still the issue of dealing with my sunken boat. Which i have no clue as to what will take place with, since so many boat at my marina are sunk or severely damaged, not to mention so many others at other facilities along the coast, it may be a long time before some kind resolution takes place.

Also CapnK, i will take your offer to heart as well.

Joe

[maxiSwede]

Wow, that was one heck of a storm!  My empathy for all who got hurt, materially, mentally and/or physically.

Despite all I am pleased to hear that sailfarers did quite well....considering.

Life and health always come first.

[Owly055]

     Reading this thread has been heart breaking..... So many lost so much.  It's worth noting however that the majority of boat owners are "absentee" boat owners, who's boats sit in a slip year after year deteriorating, and seldom put to sea.  Owners who have no real commitment to their boats and to cruising in general.  It's impossible to feel any areal sympathy for those........How many of the owners of those boats stacked up on the beaches took any active measures to protect their boats, and how many just let nature take it's course, assuming insurance would make it good, or simply not caring?
     One lesson from this would seem to be that a crowded harbor / marina is NOT a healthy place to ride out a hurricane.  If you are lucky enough that your boat stays tied up and isn't driven ashore, there is a good chance another boat will crash into it and do major damage.    Do you want your boat in a marine through a storm surrounded by neglected boats???   I wonder how many people got the anchor and fled south to Mexico using the CCW winds to get out of the path.   Most folks in the area had far more important things to worry about than their boat..... Family, homes, vehicles, survival itself.   As one who plans to live aboard in the near future, strategies for cyclonic storm survival, of both myself an my boat are important "postmortem" considerations.  The Monday Night Quarterback syndrome.   
     The water damage to a sunken boat would be a huge project to reverse, not to mention repairing holes.  These are all considerations that prey on my mind as I look to the future.   Disaster strikes with or without warning.   
     I fled in the face of a fire driven by 80 mph winds a number of years ago...... I grabbed what was valuable & portable, and fled to town....... expecting to return to ashes.  The next morning I spoke to fire fighters who said that the last thing they saw was the tiny town I live in (5 people) in flames from a mile away at the highway before they too fled.  I was prepared to lose all.... or at least steeled to it.    My brokerage account was sufficient to rebuild, but I had no insurance on anything.  God was on my side that day........ the fire split and went on both sides of town, and rejoined to the east of town.   I lost nothing but the opportunity to rebuild my life from ashes.    Fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, I've friends who have survived all of it. 
     When the mountain collapsed on a campground burying dozens of people, friends of mine had been partying in town, and the wives insisted in staying at a motel.. else they too would have died.    Life is a veritable "poop shoot", but we do have some options.   
     In the winter of '78, I was with a group of guys who were far back in the mountains, and the driver ran off the road.  I'd brought an arctic class down bag, and two of us had brought chain saws, and an axe.   I'd thrown in two come alongs and some chain.  We spent the night out at -35F in front of a fire, taking turns sleeping in the pickup in the bag.  Next morning we pulled the pickup with a dead battery about 1/4 mile up hill one bite at a time with a come along, the work of many hours, while warming the battery by the fire, and managed to get it roll started.  We all made it out alive, needless to say.... 15 miles to the nearest paved road, and 40 miles to town.   At 62, I'm the only survivor of that group of three foolish boys.     
     I sincerely hope that the only tales I ever have to tell of hurricanes are of fleeing them!!!   


                                                                                                     H.W.

[CapnK]

Even a relatively empty marina can be 'the wrong place', compared to the relative calm of a good hurricane hole. Last year in H Matthew, with perhaps only 100 yards of fetch coming into the marina from the particular wind directions (across the river first from E then from W, as we had a 180 switch when the eye passed overhead), life pretty much sucked.
We had 70+ kts sustained at the very least - over 100 kts was recorded in the immediate area before the NOAA anemometer blew down - and that made for 1-2' waves in that little space. Being tied into the system of docks and pilings/dolphins, you pray and pray that it all holds together, because if the weather finds that weakness to start breaking it up, then your boat is going to go with it.
This is worrisome at best in a bad, strong summer thunderstorm, with 40kt winds that maybe lasts an hour start to finish, but for the 12-24 hours of much stronger hurricane winds, it really, REALLY sucks.
Though I knew objectively it was very unlikely that the marina structure would fall apart given the circumstances (and that was why I stayed), it was a mental overhead that I just haven't felt when anchored out and tied off to trees or whatever, upriver and alone.
This year, and from now on, anything over TS or maybe Cat1, depending on proximity, I am leaving the docks behind to fend for themselves. I may even be putting that policy into effect as early as this week, depending on what Irma does...

(Go out to sea, Irma, go out to the deep blue sea...)

[CharlieJ]

Wow, that was one heck of a storm!  My empathy for all who got hurt, materially, mentally and/or physically.

Despite all I am pleased to hear that sailfarers did quite well....considering.

Life and health always come first.

One of us. Cyric. Lost his boat. He just put a totally rebulit diesel back in about 6 weeks ago. Never had the chance to joist a sail since he bought it

[ralay]

Sailing offshore to Mexico or anywhere else for that matter is a pretty huge gamble.  The picture below is of a forecast for Tropical Storm Debbie which formed in June of 2012 when Woody and I were bringing Mona home to Texas from Florida.  We were somewhere offshore near NOLA at the time, because it was originally forecast to make landfall near us in Pensacola.  We sailed offshore towards Lousiana, only to have the hurricane warnings move in front of us.  This storm actually made landfall in the Big Bend of FL.  It was a pretty nerve wracking couple of days and drove home the idea that the predictions can be very uncertain, especially during the time you'd need to leave in order to have time to get away. 

[ralay]

I also thought about anchoring vs staying at a marina once I saw all the boats in Port Lavaca.  Thankfully, the worst wind we've seen was only 55-65kts, gusting higher for 2-3 days during an exceptionally bad cold front.  We didn't have any damage at anchor.  We swung and pitched all over, but there was nothing to hit.  We freshened the nip of the anchor rode frequently and held on tight.  Boaters from the marinas seemed to have a much rougher time as the marinas flooded and boats smashed each other and rode up on the docks.  Unfortunately, there just aren't many anchorages let alone hurricane holes in Texas.  I looked at our chart of Matagorda Bay again to think of where we could have hid Mona, but there's nowhere to go.  I suppose we could have covered her with tires and tried to squeeze into Alcoa or the Harbor of Refuge.  But I'm not sure tying up with a bunch of shrimp boats and tows and steel barges is any better than the marina.  As much as I like the people in Port Lavaca, I don't think I'd make it my home port again.  If I were to live aboard down south again, I'd need a Travellift or a darn good hidey hole within a day's travel. 

[CharlieJ]

There are a few very good spots, but it takes a few days to get to them. There are abandoned canals on North Padre just off the Padre Island Yacht club, with deep water and high banks. Many go up the Florida Barge Canal, anchor and tire to trees. Also the same up the Colorado River.

But you re right- they are few.  Where you two were moored, is now occupied by a sunken A30 sadly

[ralay]

Yeah, that's the rub.  If it's somewhere that takes a couple days to get to, you wind up spending your precious prep time traveling and you've got to worry about bridge closures, floodgate closures, etc. as the time draws nigh.  Or you might get to your spot and find it already full of a spiderweb of local boats.  Or you might find the hurricane track has been adjusted to hit where you moved to instead of where you were.  Tricky business. 

[CharlieJ]

Bottom  line- you do the best you can, with the time you have. And then hope.

[Owly055]

     There have been several people over the years who have sailed off onto the fringes of hurricanes to "play".........  I use the term "play" with my tongue firmly embedded in cheek.    Some have written about the experience........ some have not lived to tell the tale.   The Bounty (reproduction) was lost with all hands.   In the open ocean it is possible with a fairly fast boat (multihull) to stay on the fringe, preferably on the "safe quadrant", which in Harvey was to the southwest where the motion of the storm subtracts a few KTS from the CCW winds.  When caught in the vicinity of an approaching tropical storm far from land, such as in the South Pacific, or Mid Atlantic, etc, this is a viable tactic........ the ONLY one available.   A multihull or a very large monohull, can have sufficient speed to at least theoretically "get out of the way" knowing the storm track, and location of the center......... The only survival tactic available.     

     With a storm like Harvey, the limited time to move out of the way of the storm's potential path makes sailing out of it's path chancy.   The best strategy would be to leave your boat in Panama during the hurricane season, or some other relatively safe location..... Cruise the Caribbean, sail south, fly home......  Texas really is a fairly safe location when you look at past hurricane tracks, as most storms curve northward as they approach the continent.    Anybody can be a "Monday night quarterback", and everybody should be.   It's the only way to be able to make the right choices next time.   The real challenge being to react while there is still time.  And of course for most folks the boat is NOT the priority.... the house and family are.   You are going to be out there plywooding your windows, throwing anchors into the ground and straps over your roof,  laying in water and generator fuel & cooking propane if you are going to sit it out, or making an evac plan if you are going to higher ground.   Unless you are a live aboard, the boat is at the bottom of the list....... or should be.

[maxiSwede]

     There have been several people over the years who have sailed off onto the fringes of hurricanes to "play".........  I use the term "play" with my tongue firmly embedded in cheek.    Some have written about the experience........ some have not lived to tell the tale.   The Bounty (reproduction) was lost with all hands.   In the open ocean it is possible with a fairly fast boat (multihull) to stay on the fringe, preferably on the "safe quadrant", which in Harvey was to the southwest where the motion of the storm subtracts a few KTS from the CCW winds.  When caught in the vicinity of an approaching tropical storm far from land, such as in the South Pacific, or Mid Atlantic, etc, this is a viable tactic........ the ONLY one available.   A multihull or a very large monohull, can have sufficient speed to at least theoretically "get out of the way" knowing the storm track, and location of the center......... The only survival tactic available.     

     With a storm like Harvey, the limited time to move out of the way of the storm's potential path makes sailing out of it's path chancy.   The best strategy would be to leave your boat in Panama during the hurricane season, or some other relatively safe location..... Cruise the Caribbean, sail south, fly home......  Texas really is a fairly safe location when you look at past hurricane tracks, as most storms curve northward as they approach the continent.    Anybody can be a "Monday night quarterback", and everybody should be.   It's the only way to be able to make the right choices next time.   The real challenge being to react while there is still time.  And of course for most folks the boat is NOT the priority.... the house and family are.   You are going to be out there plywooding your windows, throwing anchors into the ground and straps over your roof,  laying in water and generator fuel & cooking propane if you are going to sit it out, or making an evac plan if you are going to higher ground.   Unless you are a live aboard, the boat is at the bottom of the list....... or should be.

As far as leaving/staying in Panama, it's a gamble in itself. We had quite a number of "buddy boats" a few years ago that got hit by lightning in Panama, which made us change plan and cross the Gulf of Panama to Ecuador. iIrC 4 out of a dozen boats got hit. All electronics fried, and some more...