Back again.
Never in my whole life have I ever evacuated for a hurricane; but when I saw
the size and the power of this one, I knew that I had to go. Fortunately,
it never got closer than 125 nautical miles to our house. Damage was
limited to a large volume of yard trash. In looking at the boats in the
local marinas and hurricane holes, they all seem to have come out of it
fine, too; even the ones anchored out in the open. Our best estimate is
that we go category 1 winds, with possible gusts much above that. Had the
hurricane come as close as was predicted, about 50 miles, then we would have
had serious damage.
Our evacuation experience will make for good reading when I get a chance to
put it down on paper. I won't post it here, since it is rather off topic
for this list, but I'll route a copy to anyone who asks for one. I need to
write it down for our own personal records anyway, along with a "Lessons
Learned" analysis, for our use in the future, should we ever have to
evacuate again. We really don't want to do it in the same manner a second time.
I also had an opportunity to study how the commercial trawlers rigged for
the hurricane. That might make for some interesting reading; but it also is
a bit off topic, since this is a recreational list and the same techniques
really don't apply to recreational boats. If I get enough interest,
however; I'll post something to the list on that. I'm going to be writing
it up for my own records anyway, since we may well be able to take advantage
of that information ourselves at some time in the future.
There has been an interesting thread on rec.boats.cruising on sail vs.
power. I had been participating in it quite a lot, as I seemed to be the
only proponent of power willing to speak up and say something. If anyone
has an interest in reading the thread, which now is well over 100 messages,
or in contributing to it, you might check out the archives at
www.dejanews.com, and look for the following subject line:
Cruising: Sail vs. power
If you use that exact syntax, it should be easy to find.
They have also brought up the subject of running diesel engines at low speed
and/or low power. We went through that a few weeks ago on the TWL, but I
did not have the time then to really get into it. I'll probably write an
article on that to add to my personal FAQ file. If there is still interest
in that here, I can post it here, too.
I've got a tremendous volume of mail to go answer. For those of you who
have written to me and not hear back, please excuse the delay.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
::
Paul and Cindy Kruse :: KJV Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you,
165 South Kenneth Court :: my peace I give unto you:
Merritt Island, FL 32952 :: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
E-mail: plkruse@iu.net :: Let not your heart be troubled,
407-453-6206 :: neither let it be afraid.
::
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++