The Rest Of January...

Was uneventful, that is, until January 22.  I had gone up island on my flex Friday and chose to stay only one night.  Winston and I trundled home on Saturday, arriving about seven.   I warmed the boat, hunkered down with a nip of scotch and lavished in the thought that I could sleep in the next day.  It seemed like it would be the first sleep in for weeks.  I was due.  

As a live aboard, your hearing becomes more acute. Before the sun came up, I could hear the wind starting to blow.  Soon after I could hear and feel the effects.  The wind was out of the east.  That means for me the wind was blowing from the direction of the inner harbor and hitting me on the port beam.  I was being blown off the dock.  No before you jump to conclusions I was not being blown away but my lines were being stretched to the maximum.  I often checked the space between me and my closest neighbour.  We have no dock finger between us.  There was little room.  I put out fenders in the event we came close enough to touch.

I checked the wind speed at Ogden Point.  As boaters we learn to understand wind speed in knots.  A knot is about 1.8 km/hr.  Before coffee it was time to check what is going on outside.  At 8 AM  it was crazzzzzzy!  Waves were pounding my other neighbour’s boat into the dock with waves crashing over his deck.  As a result our dock finger was taking a beating.  I added extra lines to my boat.  I chatted to another neighbor for a bit then decided it was time to go inside.  Winston and I would not be going for the intended 6 km walk.  As I turned to head to my boat I realized that the line had pulled so tight it broke the 2X4 railing.  Then I noticed that the dock was breaking up from underneath.  The wind peaked at 56.8 knots!  One of my cleats that I was tied to was twisting sideways.  It was as if all HELL was breaking loose.  What could go wrong was going wrong!

This brought new and unfamiliar fears.  I was worried that the loose boards would find their way into the hull of my boat.   I was compelled to report the current happenings to the owner.  He came down for a first hand look.  With a little help from my friends, we did some fancy lashing to secure my dock finger to the main dock.  We also secured my boat to the main dock and to the piling.  The fear was that my boat finger would further break up in the storm.  I stayed aboard for the afternoon and early evening.  For safety reasons, Winston and I stayed overnight at our neighbour’s float home.  The next day it was decided that I would move Ta Daa to the inner harbor while my dock finger was rebuilt and reinforced with angle iron.  While it was a treat to be in the harbor, three weeks was a long time away from my home port.