Thursday, July 3, 2014

July 2, 2014 Hurricane preparation Charleston

We planned to spend the day preparing the boat for a hurricane.  But first Dave had to fix the circuit breaker.  He was about to beg our boat neighbor, Gary, for a ride for parts when he showed up at our boat.  He was more than happy to help us out.  The two of them took off to get parts.  Sounds like they ran back and forth between a few places.  Dave ended up getting a 25 amp circuit breaker for our 30 amp connection and he has to order the part we need.  So we are running one air conditioner until the part arrives on Tuesday.  Guess we'll be here a while longer.

I walked to the grocery store for a few items.  Then I spent the day tucking things away in case we really rock and roll through this storm.

Dave thinks the previous repair didn't cut back the damaged wire far enough and it caused it to over heat.  Otherwise the circuit breaker would have popped.  So when he places the new 30 amp circuit breaker, he will watch to see if it overheats.  If so, there may be a deeper problem with the connection to our air conditioners.

Late afternoon, we started retying fenders and adding spring lines from the boat to the dock.  We topped off our water tanks and put away the water hose.  We brought the cockpit cushions inside along with other small loose items in the cockpit.  We taped down covers and lids that could fly away or flop in the wind.  We taped over the engine and diesel blower vents to prevent water getting into them.  We made sure the dinghy was secure.

As we were doing this, so were the neighbors.  Everyone was helping each other.  The salty sailors were giving advice or letting you know you looked pretty good.  You want to make sure your neighbors boat isn't going to come loose and damage yours.  Then we just stood around and visited for a while, hearing stories about riding out hurricanes in the past. 

Tropical Storm Arthur is predicted to pass us off shore.  The worst prediction is 40pmh winds and 3 foot surge.  We are on a floating dock, so the surge shouldn't affect us.  We'll just move up as the water rises.  And I think we had 40mph winds in Mobile Bay.  So we feel pretty confident about our boat doing just fine.


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