Hurricane Laura was barreling toward us in the Galveston Bay. She was on track to land on Bolivar Island (where we got stuck in the mud), which is just 10 miles away. This put us on the verge of 100 kt winds, and we had 4 days to get ready.
Did you enjoy the episode? Leave us a comment down below.
How We Prepared for the Hurricane in our Sailboat
The first steps happened way before we even knew a hurricane was coming – and sorry if they seem a little obvious.
- Get reliable insurance and follow their guidelines to a tee.
- Find a marina that has a well-known reputation for being a hurricane hole.
For the immediate preparations, we had to:
- Remove sails (thankfully, I learned how to do this from Quantum Sails)
- Remove bimini and windshield
- Secure all rigging
- Normally, we have 6-8 dock lines on the boat, for the hurricane we had a total of 16
- Fill the water tanks
- Ensure batteries are charged
- Fill propane
- Fill diesel
And with all our preparations, we couldn’t help but hang out on the dock with friends sipping a bit of rum and telling stories.
On the morning of Hurricane Laura’s arrival, we heard she veered eastward by about 50 miles and left us with a completely uneventful storm.
Thankfully.
Leave a Reply