6/30

We had a deck guy over to have a look at our situation and he agreed with the last guy that it was a 10 or 20 grand job.

I asked him if he'd let me know if he's going to do something similar on another boat to give me a ring and let me come be his assistant and he said he would.

He did give me some reason for optimism though in that I'd been really puzzling over how to deal with having the surrounding core open to the elements once I'd cut open the rotten part. He said that wouldn't be an issue if I used his approach since he'd immediately build a watertight barrier against that perimeter as soon as he had it opened up.  

This is sure going to be a learning experience.

The limits of unlimited towing

Did you ever wonder what the limit actually is on the unlimited towing plan  from TowBoatUS?

Well we know now.  

We got our mail from St Brendan's Isle for the past several weeks and discovered that we had made the entire return trip from Marathon without towing coverage.  TowBoat had sent us a registered letter before we ever left Marathon stating that due to the massive tow bill we'd rung up getting down there they were firing us as clients and including a full refund of our dues for the year.

I honestly can't blame TowBoat.  We cost them several thousand dollars, and they did the deed in the most forthright way it could've been done.  

It was an eye-opener though.  I immediately thought of Rebel Heart and how they were a thousand miles out at sea when their sat phone service was switched off.  

So now we're a SeaTow boat and I'm adding it to our predeparture checklist to call and verify towing coverage every day before we head out.

6/28

I ordered those big deflatable fenders today.  I wanted to have some extra big fenders for a hurricane, but we'd have nowhere to put the regular vinyl ones.  I'd read good things about these so I took advantage of West's triple points weekend to grab them.

Nothing in the 5 day tropical outlook so that's good.

6/27

After having some horrible bug the entire week I'm finally back to doing stuff.  So yeah, gotta wrap up hurricane plans then get back into deck repair.  No idea how to get started on that.  We'll figure it out...

Hurricane planning

I did some more research on tying in the slip and we're planning a couple recon trips to some local hurricane holes.

Hurricane Planning

72 hour todo list 

• fill  diesel
• decide whether J should stay or go?
• decide where the girls will go
• deflate soft dinghy and stow aboard unless anchoring out
• get valuables off boat

• situate boat
• haul out?

• secure boat in slip?
• add lines to better secure adjacent boats?
• min 8 docklines (all new)
• 4 heavy nylon twist
• 4 longer polyester (less stretch, more chafe resistant)
• no more than 2 lines per cleat and piling
• chafe protection
• deploy fenders, fender boards
• how to secure lines to pier and pilings
• disconnect power lines?

• anchor out?
• get anchors and chain aboard
• place anchors in an equilateral triangle
• 10:1 scope
• heavy duty snubber
• get to hurricane hole
• vero mangroves?
• okeechobee waterway/indiantown?
• canal?

• batten and seal all hatches

• close all seacocks except for cockpit drains
• close 
• engine raw water
• A/C raw water 
• head inlet
• head outlet
• head sink inlet
• head sink outlet
• galley sink inlet
• galley sink outlet

• open cockpit drains

• bung exhaust

• secure boom

• cover cockpit instruments

• take as much below decks as possible to reduce windage
• lifeline netting
• mainsail
• mainsail cover
• jib
• staysail 
• cockpit shade
• forward shade cloth
• aft shade cloth
• winch covers
• windlass cover
• cockpit seat cushions
• jib sheets
• stay sail sheets
• other loose lines
• helm cover
• binnacle cover
• companionway cover
• propane tanks (ok to keep aboard?)
• anchor (unless anchoring out)
• outboard (unless anchoring out)
• grill
• jerry cans (ok to keep aboard?)

• secure everything below

• pack up for everyone leaving
• sternos
• water filters
• tent?
• people food
• dog food?
• water
• batteries
• valuables
• gas
• cash 
• clothes
• first aid
• pap

• pack up for whoever's staying with boat
• water filters
• people food
• dog food?
• batteries
• cash 
• first aid

• leavers leave

links

• Atlantic 5-Day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook
• Atlantic Tropical Weather Discussion

research

• Each year, on average, two hurricanes will come ashore somewhere along the Gulf or Atlantic coasts
• Florida is struck most often
• A study by MIT after hurricane Gloria found that boats stored ashore were far more likely to be saved than boats stored in the water.
• If you plan to anchor, check your charts to see how much water your boat will be anchored in. The best anchoring is usually in sand, followed by clay, hard mud, shells, broken shells, and soft mud. Also, water can sometimes be blown out of the harbor, leaving boats stranded briefly. If this happens, your boat would rather settle onto anything but rocks.
• If a category one storm is expected, the likely surge (according to the Saffir-Simpson scale) is only 4’ - 5’; a category two surge is 6’ - 8’; a category three surge is 9’ - 12; a category four surge is 13’ 18’; and a category five surge is above 18’.

Planning to plan

We're shooting for a crossing to the Bahamas around Thanksgiving.  We have a lot to do first, including some deck repairs and a lot of education and experience building.  

We'll also need to first survive hurricane season so my first priority is to get written down a bunch of things I've had floating around my in my head about that, and to get everything bought and prepared that we won't have time to do if we should find a storm aiming at us.  Dear blog, I intend to be accountable to you for this.  

school 6/3/2013...sort of

We were all a little exhausted from our busy weekend with friends in Orlando, so after the basics of Math, History and reading, we played legos all day.