Hurricane Preparations – A Sailor’s View

Respecting Hurricane Season

As sailors, we have learned to adjust our schedule according to hurricane season.  The season officially runs from June 1 through November 30 with the highest probability of tropical storms in the Atlantic basin generally found between August and October.  It’s a fact of life for blue water sailors and we’ve learned that surviving the season, wherever you are, is a matter of planning, preparation and a bit of luck.

• During the hurricane season, Dean starts every morning with a quick look at the Max Tracker App run by a Miami weather forecaster. It follows tropical storms as they spin off the coast of Africa and shows the projections of their possible paths. To get a more detailed analysis, he goes to the NOAA National Hurricane Center.  We track the progress of every Atlantic tropical storm and if one even hints that it is turning in our direction, we start to implement our “hurricane plan.”
• If we’re on the boat, we get the (insert foul language of choice!) out of there.  We’ll pull out the charts and compare the potential track and speed of the hurricane relative to our position and then analyze our options for a safe protected anchorage.  It’s always a bit of a guessing game, but you’re just trying to move further from the probable track to improve your odds a bit, and find a safer place to settle in.  That’s exactly how we ended up in the Connecticut River in 2003.
• Once settled, we actually have a written plan specifying all of the things we do to get the boat and ourselves ready.  The two primary objectives are to get the boat anchored or tied up securely to ensure it will stay put out of harm’s way and then remove everything from above the decks, including sails, to reduce the “wind profile” of the boat.  What we do with ourselves will depend on the situation with the boat and our location.  During Isabel, we took our boat papers and insurance policy and holed up with Jack and Ben in a Holiday Inn for a few days, no problem.  In more remote areas we might choose to stay with the boat.

Currently Snowcat is “on the hard” (out of the water on blocks) in a shipyard located in the far northeast corner of Chesapeake Bay, a reasonably safe location. Our plan is to get her launched in late September and cruise the northern Chesapeake Bay through most of October before starting a slow “follow the changing colors” trip south down the coast.