O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE 21 Aug 20 Tropical Storm Prep

 21 Aug 20:

Tropical Storms Laura and Marco are on track to swing through the Gulf, so it's the time of the year to pull our small boats and reduce their exposure to wind, tide and storm surge. Today was the day to play with CYANE, I got the trailer to the ramp, we lowered CYANE off of her strap lift and Skipper towed her over to the ramp next door.

Hey Surget, where ya going with that boat?!

The good news is our shoreline is very shoal, Skipper was barely waist deep from 300 feet out. Easy Peasy. There is a hazard associated with this ramp though, because it is so shallow, motor boaters and jet skiers rev up their motors excessively to get off and on their trailers, which ends up dishing out a large trough behind the ramp. The hole they create can bee very deep and lined with silty sand, quicksand like, and it is hard to determine how far out it goes. Skipper is aware of the hazard but still went in another foot or so. Compare the two photos above and note the wet part of her shirt, she had to go about 100 feet behind the ramp to get clear of the ditch. I actually wear a PFD if I am walking a boat over and the tide is up a foot or so, as I have been in over my head on some excursions. 

We could have motored over, but what's the fun in that? We have also paddled over, but Skipper wanted to play in the ditch today, water is nice and warm. Once the boats are back on their trailers, the TETRIS begins, where to park them to avoid damage to the boats and damage to vehicles and the house. Next decision will be whether to take off the mainsail and boom, and lower the masts, that will depend on wind speed predictions for our area. And once out, most likely the bigger boats won't go back on the lifts until Tropical Storm season is over, late October - early November. Don't despair though, we have plenty of water toys to play with....speaking of which, we need to throw a line over the Sunfish, kayaks and Sharknoe. Primary hazard for those small boats are wind gusts from outer bands.

We start 4-5 days early, leisurely pace, so we have the 72 hours prior to a storm to rest and decide if we are bugging out for a hurricane or sheltering in place with a tropical storm.

Y'all stay smart out there and don't fret about us, Skipper is our Weather Wizard and she has decades of wisdom when it comes to watching storms.