Friday, October 7, 2016

St James Plantation - we strip the boat

Oh no! Closer still
Matthew has once again changed course and is closer than ever to our coast. With that news we decided to strip the head sail and take off the enclosure and bimini. We "sunk" the dinghy by pulling the plug and letting the dinghy partly fill with water but only to the point where the tubes supported the shallow pool of water. We figured that was better than letting it fill with 10 inches of water from the expected torrential rains.

Head sail off, bimini off, tied off with multiple lines
The worst of the wind and rains are due late Saturday with peak winds of 50 kts. We are tied off well but we did receive an invitation to spend Saturday night off the boat and we both thought that was a good idea for Saturday. The problem beyond that is waiting for the ICW to clear south of here, who knows when that will be? Many of the bridges are closed at the moment and the area just south of Barefoot Landing is certainly flooded again.




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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suggest you consider cutting up an old hose or a piece of leather or or something to be used as chaffing gear over the lines on the cleats. They are going to take a beating moving back and forth in the gusts. So glad you are going to be off the boat Saturday night. The impact of a hurricane on my thinking was always greater when they came in at night. Sound without sight...............scary!


Prayers
Liz

wjs said...

Good luck to you and the boat. It sounds like you have done everything you can to be safe.

How is Hoolie behaving? He must sense some anxiety, or perhaps a change in the weather. Dogs can usually tell when things are not normal.

Bill

Bob423 said...

Hoolie is doing fine. He's calm when on the boat, even in winds. Put him on land and he's a different dog until he settles down.