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Hurricane
Isabel
by Tom Neale
Chez
Nous survived Hurricane Isabel, even though she, and we,
were in the thick of it. We weren't able to ride it out as
we usually do big storms-in the water in a good hole. As it
turned out, we were up on the hard for scheduled work when
the storm came rolling in, and there wasn't time to get Chez
Nous back in the water with all the other yard commitments,
and ours, in time for us to get her to a safe place. We had
no damage because that particular little corner of the world
apparently didn't get as much high wind or water as other
areas, and because the yard (Zimmerman Marine) did an excellent
job in preparing all the boats and the entire yard. Mel and
I also spent over two days getting Chez Nous ready.
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I've
always disagreed, as a general proposition, with the concept
that hauling a boat and putting her on jack stands is the
best way to ride out a hurricane. Driving around after the
storm, and looking at damage pictures of boats on the hard
all over the affected area, has convinced me even more that
sitting on the hard isn't necessarily the best thing to do,
given the right circumstances. The insurance industry seems
to feel that it is, and they say that they have good reasons
for taking this position, given overall statistics. But we
don't all fit into those overall statistics. I'm also going to tell you what
to do if you are in a situation in which your boat must ride
out the storm on the hard.
There's
a silver lining, as always. We spent the night of the storm
in a small house in the Northern Neck of Virginia. The winds
were stronger and more damaging than those closer to the eye
because of certain weather characteristics that we'll also
discuss in the next issue. Power, phones, water, gasoline,
refrigeration, and most other amenities were gone by the first
few hours of wind on Thursday. Some areas don't have these
now, over two weeks later. As soon as we got our boat back
in the water, we had all of these. Once again, we were reminded
that you don't need the "infrastructure" when you've
got a cruising boat. You have your own. In upcoming issues
we're going to tell you how to be sure that yours works for
you.
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