Crud! Here comes Ike

We are forecast to have winds as strong as 75 MPH as far north as Tyler which is a little too close to home. I was thinking of filling some trash cans with water and use as anchors points to tie the cat to . I have a tarp over the boat and might consider removing it. Even though it is getting pretty worn, I don't want it to act as a sail and lift the boat off the ground. Anybody got other ideas? I thought about buying some mobile home anchors, but I think water filled trash cans would be sufficient. Maybe it will die away sooner and spare us all the grief.

Definitely lose the tarp tomorrow. It's not like we're going to have a lot of UV energy. Trash cans with water isn't a bad idea. The ground is going to be wet enough that augers may not hold. Maybe yank the tires off of the trailer and lower everything closer to the ground. Take the mast off the trailer and lay it on the ground. Boat next to the house on the leeward side can't hurt.

It's definitely looking like a pretty ugly storm. Saw a satellite image a few minutes ago that showed the outer bands stretching from Louisiana to the Yucatan. Track keeps shifting further east every time the NHC updates data.

http://www.stormpulse.com/hurricane-ike-2008

We're hoping for some high-wind windsurfing here, but we may get closed out by lightning. With 36 plus hours to go before we start seeing major effects here in Dallas, it's hard to tell what's going to happen. The old saying for Texas is, "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes... It'll change." But hunkering down is never a bad idea.

I wonder if it would help to take a garden hose and flood the hulls. A couple hundred pounds of water in each hull ought to help hold it down. I have a five foot long auger buried in the ground...the kind used to anchor utility pole guy wires. Definitely remove the tramp.

I wound up driving a few 3 foot lengths of rebar into the ground angled away from the boat and ran some line from the corner castings to the anchors. I think I am good shape now. Now that the important things are taken care of, I'll start working on all the other stuff.

absolutely no tarp! and if you can, remove your tramp. the less windage the better. it also may be good if you took down the mast and laid it under the boat, so your center of gravity is much lower. your trash cans with water may blow over, how about several 12" concrete blocks to tie down too?

we just had Hanna last weekend, took all the windage items off the boat, doubled the mooring lines and got the heck outta there.

_________________
Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

Well guys it's lookin pretty nasty down this way (Houston) Keep as low a profile of windage as possible and leeward of wind direction behind a sound structure best you can. I think I'm okay for the leading edge of Ike but after eye passes may be another story!

I believe I am in good shape now. You better hunker down there Texkat. Although you are on the side of Houston that may fair better than other parts. My wife's nephew is gonna ride it out in Cypress. I think they were told not to evacuate. Ike is forcast to still be a cat 1 storm almost up to Corsicana. Thats even kinda scary for us inlanders. Good luck in Spring.

Well, we did not get the really strong winds. I would guess there were several gust to maybe 45 and about 3 inches of rain. It was kinda strange though. The winds all morning and into afternoon were pretty strong out of the east with the strongest gust occuring early afternoon. Then, what was left of the eye passed directly through here and it was very calm with rain for about an hour or less. The winds then turned and were coming directly out of the west with several decent gusts. So, no worse for the wear other than a yard full of leaves and small branches. Nothing a mower won't handle though....

Well I finally can get online since Ike came dead center over the house pretty much. Of course I'm at work, no power at house still. Yes the H-16 and H-14 are okay as are we. What a blow it was All I can say is thank God I'm in Texas where most all helps each other dig out of this disarray!