storm tactics handbook study

Storm Tactics Handbook

Yelp today was predicted to be rainy and windy.  We got up and went to the farmers market for fresh food.  There was only one stand for produce and one lady that sold cookies and pies. We did not get skunked, no sirrie.  WE got all our produce from this vendor AND we got fresh shrimp.  This guy, Rick was so funny… he said, “This shrimp does not get any fresher! Look behind me… there is the boat… we go and pull up the shrimp… shovel them in the hole where the ice is…. They wiggle for 2 minutes and they are frozen.”  Who could say no to that?

We bought our produce, shrimp and cookies. We drove back to the boat where rain influenced my decision to do indoor preparations.  I surfed for manual bilge pumps online. They cost from 28 to 1000 dollars – no kidding! All depends on how much you want to pump and how fast the water comes out.  I’m still deciding on which brand.

Then I read a little of “Storm Tactics” which Ben has pretty much read the full book and has highlighted important areas for me to know.  It was time for me to crack open the book.  The couple, Lin and Larry have sailed 189,000 miles in 30 years!  They have lived through 2% of storms.  They are very comforting sounding when Ben reads the book to me outloud at night.  I wonder if Ben has been softening the book and picking certain places to read.

He has read all about hove-to a maneuver that we will be so skilled at once we get out and practice more. There have been some big storms that have blown over the years where there have been significant people out sailing.  The people that hoved-to all lived, the people that did not do that didn’t have such a 100% happy ending.

I opened the book to read a bit about our drogue anchor. (A sea anchor that keeps you from sliding down big waves and turtling or tumbling or rolling over.) Ben has been researching which anchor to get and how to use them.  So I like lists, I went right to the list area…

With pen and paper in hand I wrote what they wrote in big letters on my paper…

            “Everything WILL get wet!” then proceeded to read on.

This exercise is to prepare us for a roll over or a rogue wave hitting us unexpectedly. Let me say that if we follow the hove-to we will not roll! But we might get a wave to slap us and pour down the hatch.  We want to be prepared as possible. 1 % is not that big of an amount but it could be a longggg 1% while in the mix of it all.

So I made more of a list of things to batten and prepare.  Things like keep your batteries in a waterproof case (easy I can do that), put one set of clothes in a double Ziploc (easy again), prepare for no electronics and engine failure (not so easy). I need to download all the celestrial navigation charts for a sextant (which we do have, and both Ben and I have sighted stars, moon, land, sun but need the chart and the mathematical equation for success.)

Enough of that for now. I went out on deck to continue stripping wood. That will be a full time 3 month project.  The rain just never poured like it was supposed to do so out I went to get in a few hours stripping wood.

Back in the boat now in the dark to study more things to do. I am trying to bake banana bread for the second time… no promises. The oven is weird! It has no temperature control so now I know you have to watch it closely.

After one full week being here I feel like we are on schedule. I’m not holding my breath.