Irene - Not again....

[Mark Tallon]

Southport, NC sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River! What is going on. Reports say this storm is coming close to Cape Fear! Lets see, that would be 6 storms in 4 years.
Solace is tied down again. Looks like the storm is weakening.
Luck to all in North & South Carolina.



cypriss428@aol.com

[Ken Coit]

Mark,

And good luck to you. This will be our first as we just launched Parfait a week ago Friday. I hope the marina turns out to be the hurricane hole thay claim it to be. Yesterday was spent travelling to Beaufort, putting more lines to more pilings, getting them off the dock cleats, and adding chafing gear. If the Island Packet in front of us will just hold its place, we should be OK.

I think we have the house better prepared with: a new sump pump, a repaired AC circuit for it (found the new professional wiring in the kitchen to be the problem), a 4 KW generator in the waiting, and additional drainage to the street. I hope you fare well and
have a good hurricane.


Ken Coit
Raleigh, NC

S/V Parfait
CD-36
Beaufort, NC

Southport, NC sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River! What is going on. Reports say this storm is coming close to Cape Fear! Lets see, that would be 6 storms in 4 years.
Solace is tied down again. Looks like the storm is weakening.
Luck to all in North & South Carolina.

ken-shelley.coit@worldnet.att.net

[John]

Southport, NC sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River! What is going on. Reports say this storm is coming close to Cape Fear! Lets see, that would be 6 storms in 4 years.
Solace is tied down again. Looks like the storm is weakening.
Luck to all in North & South Carolina.

I send the best of luck to all of you that are going through storm preps for Irene. Hopefully there is comfort in knowing you are not alone. Unless one lives in the hurricane belt most boaters have no idea how much effort is required to prepare a boat for a storm. Once a year is plenty, more than that and one begins to wonder if having a boat in the "belt" is worth it.

Irene has been my third prep since August and I sure don't want to see anymore storms of any kind. In the tropics the heat and humidity make the chore all that much worse. Most owners do virtually nothing to prepare...I assume they figure since they are insured who cares what happens. Those of us who are very attached to our boats do CARE and we do everything possible to protect them. It's those that neglect that cause a lot of fellow boaters problems.

It took me over six hours to secure our CD30 on Thursday evening. That is with all storm lines and chafe gear already prepared and waiting. I run about 800' of 5/8" lines total. I run four off the bow, five off the stern, two from midship cleats plus up to two anchors off the bow and two from the stern depending on storm strength, direction and speed. I use a 22lb Bruce, a 35lb Delta, a 20lb T-3000 Hi-tensile Danforth and a 30lb Bronze Stow-Away Fisherman. I use the high density white rubber chafe protectors ( West and Boat US )that are split along their length that I secure to the lines by a wire tie at each end passing under one strand of three strand line. I have two bow cleats and one Windline stainless samson post at the bow and the same arrangement at the stern except I added a second set of Spartan locking chocks inboard of the originals on the stern. I have a pair of bronze cleats on both starboard side and port side at midships fore and aft of the original Spartan toerail chock. I still find myself with inadequate securing points for doubled lines. I would like to hear from others who are in hurricane areas on how their boats are setup and how they prepare and what materials they use to prevent damage.

Good luck to all of you in the path of Irene !! She's small and disorganized but can be a real problem for boats, moving slow, heavy rain. Know that the worst weather was to the east semi-circle as it passed us in south Florida.

Been there, done that.....

[John]

Not again.....here we go. I just finished cleaning up from Irene. As of tonight at 20:00 hours tropical depression #14 has developed just east of the Lesser Antilles and is expected to become tropical storm and then hurricane Jose according to latest forcasts. Currently heading west at 12 and then gradually wnw. Pray for all of us in his potential path.