Captain’s log
Dateline: 23.09.2022

Update on USCG documentation

Reached out to Tami from Back Water Marine today. She’s Micky’s wife, the guy who sold me my beautiful boat.

What we’ve found out is that the USCG is taking its time. The forms were submitted on Jul 11th, and she gave them a call today to find out what’s up. They’re thinking it will take another month. All recreational paperwork gets pushed to the back of the line... the fee was something like $400. So I paid $400 to constantly get pushed to the back of the line. Bravo USCG, feels quite fair!

Without those papers I can’t go to many international ports, and it’s a real pity it’s taking this long.

For nearby territories like Puerto Rico and US mainland ports I should be good with just getting an updated bill of sale.

The storm is coming

Fiona has only caused trouble to Bermuda so far, but for folks in St James City, including yours truly, there’s Ian coming fom the south. It’s predicted to hit the gulf coast of Florida Wednesday afternoon.

I’ve MacGyvered a triple fender out of 3 embarrassingly thin Taylor Made fenders that came with the boat. They’re only like 12" in diameter, thinner than piling on docks here, hence they don’t provide any protection for the boat on their own, it’s been my poor rub rail all this time.

This storm could be a big one, Donna from Bob & Annie’s boatyard has told me today that the path is very similar to Charlie that hit this area in 2004 and destroyed a lot of roofs and mailboxes.

I wish I had real nice big meaty fenders. But I don’t.

This boat has been in this canal since 2001, hence should do okay, she’s seen many storms. Plus all my sails are in storage compartments.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 23.10.2022

Three weeks after hurricane Ian

My first hurricane, turned out to be a cat 5. Not only it was extremely large and moved slow (6–10mph), Curious Cat ended up being on the right side of the eye of the storm, and that's the worst location to be in when it comes to any hurricane. The sustained speed was supposedly 154mph, 1 mph short of cat 5. But it was a cat 5 storm, don't be lying to me, weather channel. Gusts were 205mph. If it was 20 miles south or north, there'd be no surge in St James City, no giant waves.

Quick story

Up until Wednesday 6am I expected a cat 3 hurricane many miles away from Dawson Canal.

Little did I know, it stalled and turned 90 degrees Monday-Tuesday, so with nobody around, I was still sitting on Curious Cat, preparing for the canal to lose water, with little to no surge afterwards.

Winds on Tuesday evening weren't too strong, but enough for palms to look like giant toothbrushes.

Wednesday at 6am I was texted by friends and told that my boat was going to be totaled and I needed to evacuate, the surge was going to be up and over the second floor, and I needed to save my life. Not having much time, I took what I could, moved some things to the second floor of the hotel, and got off the island.

Two days after evacuating to Miami, I saw my boat adrift in the canal not far from where I left her. I was already aware that she got loose at some point, but still was happy to see her in the canal and not on land. She was clogging the whole passage, starboard hull underwater, port on the shallow end. I rushed to get back to her, didn't want her to get looted, or worse, clawed due to blocking the whole canal.

I got to Pine Island by hitching a ride on a boat that delivered a ton of bottled water. One guy thought I was a looter, pointed a gun at me. I slept on the half-sunken Curious Cat for two days, guarding her and whatever items survived. Then I hired some cool local folks to pump the boat out for $2K. We had to do it around 11pm, using one flashlight that wasn't at all waterproof, and with me swimming neck deep in the toilet/canal/sea water. James, the guy who saved my boat, has patched the breach with a piece of 2x4, and then she was completely free of sea water, the breach ended up being above the water line. She took the dock with her, two or three pilings were still attached to her when I found the boat. The water that she took on, and the pilings were likely the reason she didn't flip and didn't travel too far on her own. She was stopped by a fallen tree in the canal that she hit with her seagull breaker.

Later somebody called the cops on me. Claimed that they saw me going to other people's boats looking for stuff. The officers didn't believe I owned the boat, so had to prove it using the bill of sale and my still incomplete USCG registration.

Mistakes made

  1. All electronics and clothes should have been moved to the cabin, above the bridge deck
  2. All hatches should have been closed with locks open (so I wouldn't have to break them from the outside trying to get in)
  3. Should've purchased large fenders long ago, they can save tens of thousands of dollars in repairs
  4. Should've dropped my anchor before leaving the boat

Lessons learned

  1. Hurricanes can blow up overnight and basically become a completely different beast
  2. Should've put cushions of sorts on the dock's piling
  3. Should've put a horizontal plank between the dock and fenders, protecting my hull during the surge
  4. Should've used spider webbing in a safe place somewhere else inside the canal
  5. Put valuable things in IP67 containers
  6. Laminate valuable paper items

Damage taken

  1. Zodiac tender flipped, pierced, one paddle lost
  2. My T-top's material got completely destroyed, the boat was covered in blue threads
  3. 5x stanchions and one pulpit on port side — an old sailboat got loose and ran into my port side
  4. 2x Lewmar 30 hatch lids destroyed
  5. 1x aluminum cleat chipped on port side
  6. 1x 14"-long through-hull breach above waterline on port side
  7. 3x large vertical dents from pilings
  8. 5x dents that went down to foam but never went all the way through
  9. 1x dented aluminum seagull breaker that tore kevlar off front crossbeam
  10. 1x furling mainstay bent
  11. starboard side rudder lost
  12. Edson marine cable steering system disabled, ANSI 50-304 chain needs to be replaced or fixed
  13. switches on breaker panel are covered in salt, ammeter and voltmeter malfunctioning
  14. 4x Sunpower 170W solar panels gone with the wind
  15. Raytheon wind vane is gone... with the wind
  16. Raytheon VHF radio (RAY210) has drowned and effectively doesn't work any more
  17. My US flag has disintegrated, only stars left, no stripes

Books destroyed

  1. Catamarans by Gregor Tarjan
  2. Inland Nav. Rules (already replaced, have to have it on board by law)
  3. The complete book of anchoring and mooring (revised second edition) by HINZ
  4. The sea hunters by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo
  5. How to avoid collisions by Michael Cargal
  6. World cruising essentials by Jimmy Cornell

Aside from that, many personal items, 3D printer, clothes, Ryobi power tools, and other things were destroyed by sea water.

Good news

  1. The diesel engine still runs, it was barely touched by sea water
  2. My electric motors and controllers are still okay, they were located on bridgedeck during the hurricane
  3. The boat's repairable
  4. The diver said there is no visible damage below water line, besides the missing starboard rudder, that is
  5. 6 out of 9 lives left

So here it is, my super unlucky first hurricane. The boat has sat in this canal for over 22 years, went through Charley, Michael, others. Then, six months after I buy her, the strongest and most devastating hurricane this place has ever seen damages her. Let's see what FEMA says about my claim.

Links

Captain’s log
Dateline: 03.11.2022

Pelican striker

My original pelican striker is dead, was completely busted when the boat hit a fallen tree in the canal over a month ago.

GMT Composites are working on a new one, carbon fiber. They're located in Rhode Island. A really cool company and very pleasurable bunch to deal with. Original estimate was three months, but thankfully it's now down to only about a month.

They referred me to Zern Rigging, where Rick Zern referred me to a guy named Keith, he lives in Cape Canaveral. Keith has turned out to be a wildly cool dude. He's been working with composite boats his whole life, races multihulls and monohulls, knows a ton of stuff about boats. I've learned a lot from him just over texts and phone.

The original A-frame was made out of aluminum. For some reason the boat had a spotlight installed on top of it, with wires running through the crossbeam, then the right leg of the part, then out through a pretty big hole, and finally to the spotlight. Four screws were drilled into the top of the A-frame, with moisture being able to accumulate inside the frame over time. It had over twenty years to do so, and hence when I took the frame off, fresh water poured out of it. This means the replacement part will make the boat much lighter, not just because it's carbon fiber.

Hopefully, if everything gets done before Thanksgiving, I'll have a new pelican striker installed and ready to get out of here by December. This is not a cheap repair, will cost me around $10,000, but it's one of the most crucial structural parts of the vessel, can't cut corners here. If I try to go now, a big wave or lots of wind could tear the main forestay out of my crossbeam and make the rig fall aft. That'd likely cost me over $50,000 to fix, so I rather not risk. Keith suggested using nylon lines to tie the tip of the mast down to hulls or far sides of the forward cross beam, but I hope I won't have to do that.

For the time being I've put 50g silica bags under thick transparent ziplock bags and taped to the crossbeam to make sure no moisture gets in. And if it does get in, I'll see those bags turn from orange to green, then change the moisture absorbant and re-tape it.