Ike Approaches
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:55 pm
We have owned our 350 for just over a month now, and have enjoyed it immensly. Words can't express how easily the boat is to sail and handle...it's such a vastly different experience from our Catalina 250. Not that it was a bad boat in any sense, but the stability and momentum of the 350 is what sailing is supposed to be (at least for us).
Now, unfortunately, a terrible hurricane is heading straight for our vessel, which is moored in Seabrook, TX. We're a few hundred yards from Galveston bay, but reasonably well protected by an earthen wall (about 8' high), a highway bridge and some buildings. We visited the boat yesterday, to rig it down and secure it. Thanks a lot to Sam, the previous owner, for providing a detailed checklist of pre-hurricane preparations. We took off the canvas and the genoa, and added a bunch of lines. We're very well secured with mostly 5/8" lines, and a monster 1" spring line. However, that can only do so much. Our floating dock is very nice; it has a newish rubber rub-rail, and floats on steel pilings. The dock can float at least 15' above normal water levels, maybe a bit higher. However, at that height, the boat will essentially be in the open waters of Galveston bay, where the waves may shred the dock. I think we'll be able to weather a 6-10' storm surge quite well; if it's worse than that, I really can't say what will happen.
I'm not sure what my point is; I guess I'm just self-realizing the reality of our situation. Buying this boat was a major life event for my wife and I; to think that it could all disappear in the next 24-36 hours is fairly surreal. Perhaps my point is that if you're sitting at home on a saturday afternoon watching TV, and your boat is just waiting patiently at the dock, remember that fair winds and calm seas are a luxury we don't always have.
Luck to us all...
Now, unfortunately, a terrible hurricane is heading straight for our vessel, which is moored in Seabrook, TX. We're a few hundred yards from Galveston bay, but reasonably well protected by an earthen wall (about 8' high), a highway bridge and some buildings. We visited the boat yesterday, to rig it down and secure it. Thanks a lot to Sam, the previous owner, for providing a detailed checklist of pre-hurricane preparations. We took off the canvas and the genoa, and added a bunch of lines. We're very well secured with mostly 5/8" lines, and a monster 1" spring line. However, that can only do so much. Our floating dock is very nice; it has a newish rubber rub-rail, and floats on steel pilings. The dock can float at least 15' above normal water levels, maybe a bit higher. However, at that height, the boat will essentially be in the open waters of Galveston bay, where the waves may shred the dock. I think we'll be able to weather a 6-10' storm surge quite well; if it's worse than that, I really can't say what will happen.
I'm not sure what my point is; I guess I'm just self-realizing the reality of our situation. Buying this boat was a major life event for my wife and I; to think that it could all disappear in the next 24-36 hours is fairly surreal. Perhaps my point is that if you're sitting at home on a saturday afternoon watching TV, and your boat is just waiting patiently at the dock, remember that fair winds and calm seas are a luxury we don't always have.
Luck to us all...