Hurricane Party

On Saturday we moved Joint Venture to a tiny little bay called “The Basin.”
(It’s a different “The Basin” from the one we explored by dinghy back on
Vinalhaven.) After snaking our way through the hidden entrance, and avoiding
some shallow spots, we arrived into a true “hurricane hole.” We are
completely surrounded by tall pines trees and the bottom holding is great.
We adjusted our anchor once already and it took some time to coax the chain
and anchor out of the sticky muddy bottom.

This morning, before we started going crazy stripping JV, I wanted to check
the latest weather. Yesterday when we left Boothbay Harbor the highest wind
forecast was 30 knots and didn’t really warrant the full removal of
everything on deck. This morning, NOAA forecast read gusts to 60… time to
start stripping.

We started by removing the genoa, bimini and dodger (we left the bimini and
dodger frame standing.) In addition, everything not permanently bolted down
got stowed – the life raft, fishing poles, barbecue grill, etc. (Our
mainsail is roller furled inside the mast, so there’s no additional windage
leaving it up.) We removed everything from the dinghy, mounted the outboard
on the rail, and filled the dink with water up to the self-draining hole.
This should hopefully provide enough weight to keep the dink from going
airborne during gusts.

Last thing to get removed was our solar panels. To our fellow cruisers –
when you select solar panels, keep the width of your companionway in mind.
Since we originally installed the panels I’ve planned on just stowing them
below on a berth if we were going to encounter high winds. Today I measured,
and our solar panels are 39 inches wide, the largest dimension through our
companionway is 37 inches… so right now the panels are strapped across our
swim platform! Worked out pretty well, I’ll post a picture when we get to
wifi.

We’re glad that we took care of all this work today in the light winds. The
forecast has changed and now we’re supposed to start experiencing 30 knot
gusts after midnight tonight. As tough as it was to complete these tasks
today, it would have been almost impossible in gusty winds. I’ll try to keep
the blog updated to let you know how we’re doing.

We hope all the folks south of us that are taking a direct hit stay safe.
Keep us posted!