It’s not If , but When…

It’s not If , but When…

It appears that we are well into the hurricane season with Texas already being hit with Hurricane Hanna. Even though she was a Category 1 storm, she produced sustained winds of 90 mph, a sea-level rise of more than 6 feet and more than 15 inches of rain as she made landfall on Padre Island. With 2020 being a year of unprecedented natural and man-made strife, we decided to start planning for the likelihood of a big storm hitting our area. 

By failing to prepare,

you are preparing to fail.

– Benjamin Franklin

When preparing for a storm, you need a plan to address these areas: finding a secure location, securing your boat, stripping the outside of the boat to reduce windage (air resistance), removing all electronics and valuables, and getting yourself to a safe location. In order to be prepared, we started in May making purchases and watching the weather.

The BoatUS Marine Insurance claim files have shown that the probability of damage can be reduced considerably by choosing the most storm-worthy location possible and having your plan ready long before a hurricane warning has been issued. Currently, we are here in Kemah, TX which is basically right between Galveston and Houston. We are on the water in Waterford Harbor Marina which is one of the most inland marinas in the area. The good thing about being more inland is that we don’t have to worry so much about the storm waves but will have to worry about storm surge (storm tide/flood) and also water runoff from land which will cause water levels to rise and flood. Here at the marina, we have floating docks which can raise to 16 feet before they fail. Another good thing about this particular marina is our protection from the wind. Though it can make it stifling hot during the summer, it is preferred during a storm. The land around us is elevated and covered with trees, houses, condos and apartments blocking a good portion of wind to keep our boat from rocking or being knocked around in the slip.  Even during Hurricane Ike in 2008, the storm surge in Galveston Bay reached 10-14 feet with a maximum sustained wind of 95 knots (110 mph) and we were told that the marina did not lose a “properly prepared” boat to the hurricane. 

Since we live aboard Nymeria at a marina, we tend to go overboard with how we secure her to the dock. We try to reduce the amount of unnecessary movement in the slip so that we are not bouncing between the lines. This allows us to keep more items out while we are in live/work mode. Since we bought Nymeria, we have been using the old dock lines that came with her and some old hand-me-downs from our friends left to cruise a few years back. We had been upgrading our lines as needed but it was definitely time to do the big upgrade of all of them. In preparation for a storm, I bought new dock lines which were an appropriate length for our size of boat and a size thicker than recommended in order to be prepared for anything. We are lucky in that we have finger piers on either side of us to act as a barrier between us and the surrounding boats. This will also help during a storm in that we can secure Nymeria in between both piers with additional lines and fenders to hopefully keep her in the middle and minimize damage from hitting the dock or pier. Lady, our new dinghy, will be lashed down on her own floating dock with her engine removed to keep it high and dry during the storm.

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When considering the passive windage (wind resistance) of our boat, we have a lot. We have our rolled up Jib, our large stack pack for our MainSail, a large solar panel and our bimini and dodger canvas over the cockpit. Even when our sails are nicely stowed, we still catch quite a bit of wind with all of this gear outside on the boat. The plan is to strip her clean and safely stow everything below in the cabin. This will keep Nymeria from getting tossed around so much by the wind and also keep our gear from getting ripped or blown off all together. Decreasing our windage is very important as the last two big storms to hit Texas were Hurricane Harvey in 2017 with wind speeds of up to 130 mph as a Category 4 and Hanna with wind speeds at 90 mph as a Category 1. 

Most of the preparation documents online seem to focus on how to prep the outside of the boat with just a few talking about what to do inside. Luckily, we have tried to keep the extraneous items to a minimum as we want to make a fast and easy transition from living and working mode into sailing mode. In preparation for a storm, we will do our typical sailing prep by stowing everything safely and secured in its location, closing all ports (windows) and hatches, and closing all seacocks (openings above/below the water line). The seacock for the bilge pump will remain open of course to continue to pump out any water that may get inside. In prepping for a storm, we will need to also remove any boat/personal documentation/papers, personal valuables. If for some reason we do get water in the cabin, we will also either remove or prepped electronics for possible water exposure. We will make sure that our batteries are well charged so that they can run the bilge pump and so it can try to keep out any water. It is recommended that if something isn’t supposed to get wet, it should be removed or sealed up if possible to minimize water damage. This is also a good idea to keep looters away after the storm. With everything safely stowed or removed, there should be plenty of room inside for our sails, canvas and solar panels.

When a hurricane comes for Galveston or Houston, Justin and I will plan to leave the boat and go to solid ground. Where we will head depends on the strength of oncoming the storm. For Tropical Storms and Smaller Hurricanes, we will probably stay in the area with friends. Either one who lives in the Condos adjacent to the marina or a friend who lives in a house across the lake. If we’re staying in the area, we may take Lady with us in the truck to allow for quicker access to the big boat if all the roads are flooded. For significant Hurricanes, we will probably take refuge more inland with friends who live near Dallas or make the longer trek to stay with family in Oklahoma. We evacuated TX during Hurricane Harvey and left our RV behind in 2017 and it took us 2 weeks to get back due to flooding. That was a long 2 weeks of staying with friends and wondering if our RV was still habitable. I can’t imagine waiting that long to learn about Nymeria’s fate.

Patience is not the ability to wait,

but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.

– unknown

As we watch for storms and hurricanes to head our way, we are grateful that we are in a great location to ride out the storm. We are taking in all the good advice from the internet and from experienced sailors at the marina. We’re attempting to be ready but I’m sure that we will forget to do something critical or will do something in the incorrect manner. For us, it’s still a process that we are figuring out as we go but also loving the challenge. 

Calm seas make no sailors.

A sailor is made in a storm.

Vijay Eswaran