So Erika turned out to be nothing much. The storm stayed south of Hispaniola and most of the island of Cuba, so it didn’t turn north until well west of our longitude. We saw about five inches of rain and wind gusts to 40 knots during the peak of the storm.

Dream Catcher weathered the storm fine and we incurred no damage what so ever and hopefully with a little luck, this will be the only named storm we face this year.

I did get a couple of questions from the peanut gallery to expand on our storm preparation routine, so here goes.

First, in the event of a named storm, we have to look at where we are and where we can hide. As we cruise, we always make note of suitable hurricane holes along our traveled path. Having this info ahead of time can be a huge time saver in the event of tropical weather. There is only 1 marina in the Exumas that is safe to ride a hurricane out in, so unless we find ourselves within 20 miles of Cave Cay, we pretty much know we are anchoring the boat.

As far as storm prep, first we strip all the sails and canvas off of the boat. This is stored in the unused spare stateroom forward and to port where it is out of the way should an emergency ensue. In addition to the canvas, all the fishing whackers, gas cans and water jugs are removed from the stern of the boat. The rods and water cans are stored inside along with the cockpit cushions and sun shade pieces, while the gas cans and our Honda 2000 generator are stored in an outside, vented cockpit locker.

Once the outside is completely stripped, we make our best guess on what the worst case scenario as far as winds will be for the storm. If the weather is forecast to be over 75 knots ( Class 1 or above Hurricane) then we deploy our three, six foot long, 12 inch tine Helix screws equal distantly in a roughly 20 foot circle.

To install the screws, I have a 5 foot stainless steel bar that I use to physically turn the screw right into the sand. Ideally, I turn and turn until only the eye socket is above ground. Of course this involves free diving down, holding your breath, turning the screw and then repeat. Times three.

In practice it takes me about four hours to get all three screws turned in. Obviously this has to happen well before the storm approaches and so we make our decision to deploy the screws at least 48 hours out.

Once the screws are down, they are chained to each other as well as to a central stainless shackle. Dream Catcher is then attached to that shackle on twenty five foot (depending on depth) pennants. The pennants I made are out of 1.5” synthetic, 12 braid, cored rope that has a breaking point north of 50,000 pounds. As an aside, I got 200 feet of this rope in trade from a friend of a friend who owns a 130 maxi racer and had computer problems.

We use two primary pennants, one to each bow as well as two secondary pennants, one to each factory tow hook and these are left slack compared to the primaries. Each pennant line gets a custom built chaff guard that is really just a 5 foot length of 1 inch potable water hose split down it’s length. The chaff guards are to protect the rope from abrasion where  it passes through the chocks on the front of the boat and they are held in place with the judicious use of electric tape.

If the storm is a category 1 or possibly a 2, I may ride out the storm on board to adjust lines and to do a half hour chafe check on our bridles. If the storm is going to be severe, I will typically join Amy and the weasels somewhere  onshore to hunker down and take shelter from the storm.

Another popular option down here is pick up one of the mooring balls back in Hole 0 or Hole 1 here in G’Town, but while some of the moorings are well maintained, both holes have several that are not and so this puts you at risk. Every hurricane we’ve had through here in the last 5 years has knocked boats loose of moorings in the holes and created a pinball effect. 

Having been through that once with Hurricane Sandy, I wouldn’t utilize the moorings again.

Anyway, that’s how we roll when the tropical weather comes a calling and  before the flame emails start coming in, remember, this is just our strategy and I am not recommending anyone try this at home.

More to follow, end of line …