Preparing Our Boat For A Hurricane [Sailing Kittiwake Ep. 114]

There's a current tropical depression that's just formed out in the Atlantic. It could either be a weak tropical wave or it could be up to a Category 2 hurricane. The situation's made a bit more complicated at the moment because of Covid. The most obvious thing seems to be to just dodge it. Even in the Caribbean it's better to be in jail than to be dead. We can't really take any risks because our lives and home are at risk. Skua is set up for a hurricane. And this is Ryan. In 2017 we left the UK on our first boat, Kitty Wake. We lived on Kitty Wake for two years then Skua came along. She's a Tayana 37 from 1976. We live on Skua on a budget and work online to keep traveling by sailboat. In 2020 we crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Now we're exploring this beautiful part of the world. So there's a bit of a fever, panicked fever going on on Skua this morning. There's a current tropical depression that's just formed out in the Atlantic and it is exceptionally low, like far south. There's a high chance that there's going to be a storm, at least a depression, probably a storm, possibly a hurricane affecting this area. We're going to try and duck south of it. We're going to pop into Clifton, the nearest town, and stock up on some food and water. Then we are going to sail down the western side of Grenada and probably heave to there or wait around there until we can get more accurate info on where its track is developing. The weather forecast that we know and trust, ECMWF, is showing that it will dissipate by the time it gets here. But we've received info from Chris Parker which said that it could be a hurricane. If it is a hurricane it's likely to head further north like towards Martinique and if it stays down here it's likely to be a depression or tropical storm. But it does seem to be changing pretty quickly all the time. It seems to be getting worse and worse. When it first appeared in the forecast we weren't worried at all because it was just meant to be a tropical depression that would dissipate before hitting the eastern Caribbean. So a day or two out it would dissipate and then we'd get the usual squalls and high winds and rain. Nothing that we're worried about. Not this time. The situation's made a bit more complicated at the moment because of Covid. I think in a normal year we would have just been like ah screw it let's go to Grenada and just check in there and hang out there. Yeah. But now I think we're probably going to have to like linger off the coast so that we don't upset anyone about going into anchorages without a PCR test and checking in and what not. Today is Wednesday. The storm is meant to hit Friday? Saturday? Saturday. Saturday in the latest forecast. So we have three days or so to get safe. And the bottom edge of Grenada is eight hours from here so... Yeah we're really close. Anyway that's what's going on on score this morning. Yeah. Unexpectedly. What are you up to? So I'm just changing our in-reach plan so that we can use it as much as we want so that we can keep in touch with our families and message the person who's relaying weather information to us while we're further south away from the internet of the cell phone coverage. Looks like it. Yeah. All right rubbish is taken care of and we're gonna go get some water and food and hey. Yeah just have a look around. You could eat a little bit. Be a little cutie. Come on, come on. We got everything? So hot. It's kind of nice to have the rain on us right? I mean I'm glad we didn't catch the big downpour but... Yeah that was intense. Looks good. Should be nice and clean. Yeah yeah there's paddles and everything. It's proper proper dump. Um I think we're in here. Here's the goaties. I can't decide whether they are sneezing or farting. Kidding. Just kidding about. Here's our little hole. It's pretty much all the useful stuff they had in that little mini market. But it's all gonna be all right. We have a mega stack of Pringles and it's somehow triangular. A little bit of tuna. Ryan got himself his ever first corned beef. And crackers and that. And then we have some food left on the boat but nothing really fresh. But it will do. So we've stocked up. We've got everything we need to be ready to go any minute. And we're just going over our final plans. The storm is still quite changeable. The track seems fairly set according to Chris Parker. But the intensity seems like it could change quite a lot. It could either be a weak tropical wave or it could be up to a category 2 hurricane with 100 knot gusts. It doesn't seem like that's going to be apparent in the next 24 hours. We won't be going anywhere until tomorrow morning so we'll still get a bit more info. But it seems like the track is fairly set. It's basically here is more or less the bullseye. We're just north of Grenada. And that's quite unusual. Bequia's never been hit by a hurricane apparently. And it could get hit by a hurricane. So it being quite a small storm and not very predictable. Small as in in the area it covers not in its intensity. The most obvious thing seems to be to just dodge it. And because of Covid we can't just sail somewhere and anchor for a couple of days and then come back. What we're going to have to do is just sail and keep sailing and then turn around. So we've got two options. We can dodge to the south or we can dodge to the north. At the moment we are favouring dodging to the north because it means not going near Trinidad. And it seems less and less likely that the storm is going to track to the north. At the moment it's tracking at exactly 270 degrees so due west. And so the chances are it's going to hit around Grenada. Now if that's just a small tropical storm that's not such a big deal if we took the go south option. But if it turns into a big revolving hurricane with super strong westerly winds through the area between Grenada and Trinidad then we could be in a bit of a pickle because we don't particularly want to go too close to Venezuela at the moment. So the islands to the north at the moment are a bit more sort of friendly and understanding it seems. Trinidad is basically just like a flat no don't come here. Whereas Martinique and Guadeloupe the French islands seem a bit more flexible. And so we feel a bit more comfortable dodging to the north which isn't the normal approach you'd take. Normally on the north side of the eye there'd be stronger winds and more of a chance of it curving that way. But this one like I say being so small and it's seeming to be quite set in its track. We are leaning towards dodging north at the moment. The other thing about that is that Chris Barker said that we should be prepared for a hurricane anywhere between the south of Grenada and the north of Saint Vincent. Which is exactly where we are right now and where we could sail to. Yeah so in that area we need to be prepared for up to 100 knot winds. Which we're not. We don't want to be. So I've done two weather routing options with luck grip to figure out when we'd need to leave to be at the furthest point of way while the storm's rolling through. The arrival of the strong winds is also seemingly fairly well defined and seemingly quite predictable. So basically if we were to dodge north we'd have to leave tomorrow sometime around lunchtime. Maybe just a bit after. And then assuming a speed of four knots which is less than our normal speed but with the currents around here we know we can maintain that speed and we can slow down to it. We should get to Guadeloupe. The storm will pass underneath on Saturday and then we just do a 180 sail back down. We wouldn't infringe any laws. We wouldn't anchor. We wouldn't go within the territorial waters. So we'd stay 12 nautical miles off of all of the islands to avoid their territorial waters. We'd just be out at sea on an innocent passage. So I can't imagine anyone having any major problems with that. And as far as I know there's no piracy problems up there like there have been with Venezuela. If we were to dodge south it would mean that we would have less far to sail so we could leave Friday morning and then we'd be at the most southerly point somewhere down near Trinidad when the storm passed and then come back up. So that's our two main options. Obviously like I'm only giving a very brief summary there's been a lot of thought. We've had a lot of discussions with more experienced people than ourselves including all of the information given out by Chris Parker who's a professional weather router and does like weather forecasts for these specific events. So yeah we have obviously thought this through quite a lot. And we're keeping our mind open. Anything could change with tomorrow's forecast. Yeah anything could change with tomorrow's forecast. This morning we were fairly certain we were going to dodge south. The day before we were fairly certain we were just going to put two anchors out in Canoan because it was not going to be a tropical storm. So stay tuned to see what we actually do. The other thing to say is that although there's no hurricane holes in St Vincent or the Grenadines there are reasonable ones in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Antigua. So if the storm did veer north we'd have more options going up there than we would if we stayed here. Yeah including the option to get arrested for landing on a car. Yeah. Country, close country. Even in the Caribbean it's better to be in jail than to be dead. I suppose. Although I'm not too sure. I don't really want to go to prison. Never been to jail even in the Caribbean. So our tropical storm Gonzalo has now been forecasted to become a hurricane tomorrow, huh? Yeah some of the forecast models were showing it already. Yeah. But yeah now the NHC is saying it feels a bit more real. But it should be a storm by the time it hits here again so it should dip back down again. And we're going to be so far out of the way it doesn't really matter. So our response to that is having sundowners and plantain chips. Cheers. Why is your drink so much bigger than mine? You made it, I don't know. Oh it's raining again. What's our last meal before the storm prep? Our final supper, last supper. Last supper. It is parmigiana. Delicious, tomatoey, auberginey, cheesy, pastry dish. I need to eat my mouth's watering. I'm dribbling like a dog. It's hot. Yeah really hot, careful. It's hard to think about like this could become the center of a storm, right? Yeah. It's so calm. Crazy violent weather that could be here in two and a half, three days. Yeah. All right, enjoy your meal. Thank you. Your last supper. I'm joking, I'm sure we'll be alive tomorrow. Good morning. The forecast changed again overnight and a lot of the experts are saying that going north would be a bad idea right now because it's such a compact system that it could change track at any point. There's no right or wrong thing to do right now other than not doing anything. We're going to go to the marina in Kanoa and ask if they'll take us for this storm. We're ready to up our insurance, whatever it takes. If they won't take us, we'll possibly have to sail south or just put square anchor somewhere and just watch her from the shore. A lot of different models agree that it's going to be a hurricane force storm or a heavy storm, especially if it veers north. But if it veers south, it could be just a lightish tropical storm. But we can't really take any risks because our lives and home are at risk. So the best thing we can do right now is trying to get into a marina and, yeah, figure it out from there. Sorry for the quick one, but we need to get going. Here we are. We are in Kanoa in this marina. Expensive marina, but hey-ho, it's the only one available in this country. Coming in was a little bit full on, so we couldn't really get it on camera, but all went smoothly. We are on some sort of finger pontoon, but a bit short, a bit weird, but it doesn't even sort of raise and lowers with the tide. But for now, we're just temporarily berthed. We are going to sort ourselves out the next day or two. We've got time before it hits. And so far, they said we can be here for the storm. So as long as they're happy with our insurance, we should be able to stay. How are you feeling? Right now, immensely relieved. We're in a really good berth. It seems really well protected in here. We're really far in, aren't we? Yeah, we're really, like, buried. And the pontoons seem, like, really solidly well made. So right now, I'm feeling pretty happy, but we obviously still need to keep a close eye on what's going to happen, just so we can, like, make sure we're fully prepared. We're going to take the sails down and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, the fun's not over. Okay, we have been checked by the doctor. We have signed our health form for COVID-19. Our temperatures were fine, and now we are going to check in, which is the final challenge, the most scary one, actually, because we were pretty confident we were healthy, but, yeah, the insurance could be a problem. So that's where we're off now. Good, really nice. Everyone here is really, really nice. I think it's the nicest marina we've ever been on. All right staying, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome. Yeah, most people are fairly positive about the storm as well, so fingers crossed. We're going to get an ice cream. That makes me so relieved. We spent the next 24 hours getting Scua ready for a direct hurricane hit. So we're nearly at the end of preparing Scua for the storm. We've mainly been trying to reduce windage and making sure anything that could blow away or break in the wind has been put down below. So we've taken off the mainsail, we've taken off the two headsails on the furlers, and then we've wrapped the halyards around the furling units, and that helps to stop vortices, vortexes, making the furler pump back and forth in the wind. I've done that on the mast as well where I can. So yeah, everything else has just been taken off, stowed below. The dinghy, the guys have set up like a storage area to put it in. So we've put it over there and then tied it to a couple of trees. They lent us some extra fenders as well. We've got quite a lot of fenders. We need to keep adjusting the fenders and make sure they're in the right spots. The main things that are left are to take down the bimini, wrap the solar panel. We're not going to take the solar panel off because I think the chance of breaking it are high, or the chance of damaging it are high, or damaging something else when we're taking it off. We'll do that last minute because we need the sun for electricity. And we're going to move Skua into the middle of this two-boat berth. There's plenty of space in this marina and the guys have been really good. They even said we could, if we wanted to, take a line all the way across the fairway to the back of our boat so that we can pull her off out of the berth. But we've got plenty of lines on as you can see. Most lines are backed up or there's two lines for the same purpose. Lots of tree protection as well. Yeah, we put hose over all of the bits where the line goes through the horse pipes. So yeah, I think we're about as ready as we can be. And the forecast is getting more favourable. And yeah, we just settled in. We're feeling a lot more relaxed and just kind of waiting for it to come now. We've also waterproofed the boat as much as we could by putting some pool noodle to stop loads of water going through some holes that we've got. So a plane flew through the storm today and recorded the maximum rain as 75 millimetres per hour, so three inches an hour, which is a lot. And I think the rain could be one of the biggest things. We need to make sure the cockpit's draining really well and any potential leaks are plugged. So we wrapped some tape around the mask to make sure the mask boot is completely sealed and plugged any holes with pool noodle. We're also going to close all the through holes and we'll turn the propane off. And we're going to have a repair kit sort of thing. Yeah, so I'll keep a load of like spanners and duct tape and spare line and all that kind of stuff that you might need in an emergency. Obviously, we'll have waterproofs ready. And we did re-rig jack stays so that we could clip in if we needed to go on deck when it was still predicted to be a hurricane. But as it's now been downgraded to a tropical storm, we probably won't need to do that. Hopefully it'll be like 50 knots max and we can just, you know, go to a bar and then walk back and check on it and stuff. But we'll see. Well, you feeling good about it? Yeah, I feel like it was really tough making the decision. And we kept all options open. And I think we, in the end, chose the most sensible one given that the track seemed so variable and the intensity seemed so variable. So you can see this super yacht, they tied it to this dock and then they took a few lines, I think two or three, two across to the other side. And to keep it off the wall in case the wind came from the opposite direction that was forecast because obviously it's a revolving storm. So this is the local charter fleet. There's how many? Six? Seven? Twelve. Oh, twelve. There's lots of the local charter fleet. Nine charter catamarans between 60 and 70 feet. And they decided to tie to each other to keep each boat off the pontoons. It's the morning of the storm and everything has been downgraded. It's a tropical storm and it's probably going to hit mainly Trinidad and Grenada. So not here. We'll still get torrential rain and windy days. I think up to 45 knots of wind, but that's nothing. Right, you're making lots of noise. And yeah, we're going to go have a look around outside. All we've had so far, and this is 9am, is just a bit of gusty wind and heavy rain. But school is set up for a hurricane. So we're thinking of going out for breakfast to celebrate that we've not been hit. Yeah, we dodged it. Yeah, totally dodged it. Dodged us anyway. We didn't really dodge anything. Yeah, we didn't dodge it, but it did. It was just a complete potluck, wasn't it? Like, yeah, there's people who have gone to Trinidad thinking it would be safe. And now they are in the tropical storm. People have gone north. A really experienced sailor yesterday said to us, if I was you, I'd be going to Trinidad. And we were like, yeah, we're kind of here now. We're not going to jump out and go down. Yeah, I mean, we made, I think, yeah, yeah. I think we made the decision that we were most comfortable with because it could have gone anywhere from south of Trinidad to at least Martinique. So yeah, like, what are you going to do? There's too big an area to avoid, haven't it? So yeah, going out to celebrate, huh? They're all looking good? Yeah, fine, yeah. It's just she was bouncing a bit from one side to the other. It's a pretty big gap for my short legs. Hey, what did you say? Nothing. Jesus, I might have to jump. Yeah, be careful, it's wet. Yeah, I know. Everything's really slippery. Would you be better off going over the bowsprit? Yeah, I think I'll go over the bowsprit. Okay, let's do this. Okay, it's filming. There she goes, the little garden gnome. The fraying of the bowsprit is worth it. Yeah, like smooth polished metal. Slip off, there's nothing under it. Demonstrate the other way. Well, we'll basically be calmed, huh? I don't want to say it's a disappointment. No, I mean it's gonna, it's meant to come later today at two. So, it's still 9am. Anything could happen. Yeah, I've got a feeling it'll just be like this all day, you know? Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, we shouldn't get much wind up here. We are north of the eye. Yeah. All right, let's go check on the dink. Hey, Barney. Yeah, she's looking good. We tied her up in three points. To these trees, whatever they're called. Bushes. And we've got our second anchor holding her down. And hopefully, she'll be a bathtub soon. And she won't be blowing anywhere. All good, yeah. Let's go celebrate. Let me just turn this camera around. This is Helen. Can you see anything? I was holding the camera. Were your eyes even open while you were holding the camera? I had, like, this much vision. You had no idea where you were pointing it at. Oh, there's a golf cart. Maybe we'll get a ride in the golf cart. Oh, maybe we'll get a ride. Wow, it's coming in fast. Slippery. Thank you. Oh, that's Checkley's Dinghy. Oh, yeah. Could it be? Oh, yeah, it's Checkley's Dinghy. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and click on the bell button. You can support these free videos via PayPal donation or by becoming a patron.