As I look back on this week, it seems we have accomplished nothing. I had high hopes. Rain was forecast and once again, I thought this would be the excuse to get some things crossed off of my “inside” list. Those items have been pushed aside for higher priority items focused on getting the rig set up for sailing with more sails–the current goal is setting a jib. But, with rain forecast all week, and Mahdee with an invaluable spot at the visitors dock (easy access and shore power and water!!), I thought we would make some serious headway on that “inside” list. I was wrong. On an online forum an individual posted that they wanted to sail around the world, but to ensure it was exciting enough, they didn’t want to research or prepare for the journey because it would then be just as expected and thus without excitement. He is wrong.
During the good weather last weekend before the storms, we put together a really nice bowsprit net which has a primary purpose of catching the jib when it is dropped and thereby keeping the sail from dropping into the water in front of Mahdee. We had hoped to take a test sail, but by the time it was all done, there were very dark clouds approaching from the West. With the forecast for high winds, we decided to wait until after the storms before testing out Mahdee’s jib sails.
MONDAY
The first heavy rains were forecast for Monday. We put on two extra dock lines before heading off to an obligation ashore. Normally we set a bow line, a stern line and two spring lines–one going forward and one aft for a total of four dock lines along her pier side. We have comfortably left Mahdee on many occasions tied up with four lines. On Monday, we decided to add a second bow line and a second stern line which got us up to six lines and we were confident when we left Mahdee. Torrential rains came and when we returned to Mahdee the only problem was that the dock line had pulled apart an electrical connection and, of course, the live end fell into the water, oh, and the shore side breaker didn’t trip. After shutting off the power, and rinsing the connection in fresh water, we used compressed air to completely dry the connection. This time, we left some more slack in the lines and we bagged, taped and sealed the cord connections. One problem of the visitors dock is that we are over 130 feet from the nearest power and shore power cords are typically 50 feet. That forces us to have two cable connections which we also placed at high points to further reduce the chance of water intrusion. I had wanted to get sealing plastic rings for the connections as recommended by someone with a boat at this marina, but the marine store was closed. The plastic seals were the next best thing and they would let us sleep better during the torrential rains forecast for the week.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was to be a good day of interior work. NOAA was forecasting a very weak frontal passage and all the really bad weather wouldn’t be here until Thursday. We got ready to attack the highest prioritized tasks when the winds started to rise. I quickly decided that I would be more comfortable sitting in the chart house for a bit. The winds continued to rise directly on Mahdee’s beam. This was putting the biggest possible wind-loading on Mahdee. The canoe was strapped down with five lines which I thought would be plenty for the “weak front” coming through. Because the strengthening winds were right on our beam, the canoe was lifting so I decided we needed some more lines on it. I got a couple more lines on the canoe when I noticed that one of the cleats on the dock was breaking loose. This really got my attention because it was a cleat to which one of Mahdee’s two bow lines was attached. If it went and the increased load took out the other bow cleat Mahdee would be pealed off the dock and there would be little hope of preventing a catastrophic crash into the leeward docks and boats–there was enough room for Mahdee to build some speed up before hitting those boats, but not enough room to maneuver Mahdee if her bow turned more than about 45 degrees. We had to keep the bow against the dock. The stern lines were much less critical. The beam winds had pushed Mahdee away from the dock, but I managed to get on the dock. The failing cleat had twisted 90 degrees and tilted so that the line was trapped under the cleat. Fortunately there was a long tail on that line and I ran it across the dock to another cleat so that if the first cleat broke clean away, the second might keep Mahdee’s bow from turning too far.
Brenda stuck here head out of the companion way door. I shouted for help. The howling wind made verbal communications almost impossible. I didn’t want to make the big jump over the water between the dock and Mahdee. Brenda figured out that something was wrong and came out and we managed to communicate that we needed more bow lines. Brenda worked her way forward through the violent winds and started attaching lines we had up on the foredeck to the windlass and tossing the ends to me on the dock. By the time we had two more lines set, I was feeling less panic. In the end, it looked like a spider web on Mahdee’s bow, because we had lines to every cleat around the bow, on the near and far sides of the dock. There was one boat further out on the dock, but no one was aboard the last boat on the dock so I didn’t feel bad about making it difficult to pass. Brenda went to town putting on chafe protection of fire hoses and leather. The normally laid-back dock master came by to check out how we were doing. He was clearly having a bad day, but seemed happy that we had more lines on and not at all concerned with the web that crossed over his dock.
We now knew that the cleats were not through-bolted–dock master would rather have an occasional cleat pull out rather than rip out a section of dock. That said, the 12 inch cleats had 10-12 inch lags holding them down. The last boat on the dock was about 30 feet long and attached to two dock cleats. It bounced all over the place, but its light weight didn’t stand a chance of pulling out a cleat. At 29 tons, Mahdee was at the other end of the spectrum, and one of the heaviest boats at the marina. The marina weather station crashes at about 60 knots of wind. It had crashed when Mahdee pulled out the cleat. Mahdee has a relatively low hull by modern standards, but her schooner rig has much more windage than a more modern rig. In any case, with enough wind speed, the forces grow immense. The real devil, however, is the surging. The marina is currently without any wave attenuation. As the waves lift the docks and boats out of phase and the wind lulls put slack in the dock lines which is snapped out by very high wind gusts, we realized that keeping Mahdee safely attached to these docks was not going to be easy. I marveled that the big 54 foot CT behind us hadn’t pulled out any cleats since he had everything attached to just four cleats. For the rest of the day we sat in the chart house when we weren’t out checking for chafe or working cleats.
WEDNESDAY
The winds finally slackened around 11PM and we dropped quickly off to sleep. I was happy because tomorrow was Wednesday and NOAA said that the really bad stuff wouldn’t be here until Thursday at the soonest. Ignorance is bliss. At 5:30 AM the howling of the wind started back up. I rolled over, hoping it was all a dream. Brenda was more realistic about our predicament so after a bit of denial, I got dressed. We were certain that neither the wind speed nor direction were in line with the forecast and since the general trend was for the weather to get really bad we decided we needed to put on some more dock lines. More spring lines, more stern lines, more bow lines. Soon we had a dozen lines onto a dozen dock cleats. One would think that we could relax now. The CT was still only attached to four cleats. He was currently slightly “downwind” of us so I figured that when he broke lose, we would be OK.
The wind howled, and the rains came and went. All in all, wind speeds seemed less than the day before (remember the weak front), but the winds kept on and on. The dock master looked at our amazing web of dock lines and asked what our plans were when the dock pilings gave way. It was hard to tell if he was being facetious, so I said that that thought had occurred to me–it HAD because the dock pilings have been battered by three years of no wave attenuation and now there were two heavy boats on his dock during a major storm. The biggest contingency problem I foresaw was that if we had to get underway due to some such disaster, we would have a really hard time getting the remaining dock lines off. The solution was to have a fire axe or machete on board to cleave away dock lines. A machete is on the list of needed equipment, but it’s amazing how events sneak up on you. I never thought I would have even a remote chance of needing one in San Diego–but here we were. I have tools for cutting away the metal shrouds if we were to break a mast and need to cut the shrouds to clear it away, but Brenda and I went through tools to find something just in case. I decided a fine-bladed cross cut hand saw might work–especially if the line were under lots of tension. We also put Brenda’s really sharp large leather cutting scissors with the saw in the chart house where they would be ready. To pass the time between trips to the dock to look for chafe and working cleats, we spliced some of the enormous 1-1/2 inch diameter spare dock lines that had suffered extreme chafe damage from a time before we owned Mahdee. We can only imagine what storm caused the damage to those lines!
Around 10 PM, I saw flashing lights. It wasn’t lightning, but instead Seatow. Vessel Assist, the local Boat US contractor had been called first, but they said they wouldn’t leave the dock in this weather–we are going to have to re-evaluate our selection of Boat US for towing services. Seatow was here to retrieve one of the boats that was breaking free from its mooring. I figured it had to be one of the large boats and it turns out it was a 48 foot Grand Banks named Gracie that has the mooring adjacent to Mahdee’s. She had sawed through the stern mooring line and was now capable of hitting adjacent boats. We were glad Mahdee was not on her mooring. The Seatow captain laughed at the web attaching Mahdee to the dock and then brought in Gracie and tied her up, as I discovered in the morning, with only four lines.
THURSDAY
All night long it blew and every few hours I had to get up and jump across the chasm to the dock and then carefully check all the cleats for working, and lines for chafe. The morning sky first showed light in the West. It was almost as if the sun were rising where it had set. In the first light I noticed that Gracie was about to lose the cleat her stern line was attached to. Without that cleat, she would probably swing around and possibly hit Mahdee’s bow. I ran over and took the tail of the line and ran it over to another cleat on the far side of the dock much as I had done for Mahdee. I could see a second line on her deck, but I couldn’t reach it. I ran back to Mahdee and got a pole with a hook. I was able to hook the line and it appeared to be around a cleat on Gracie’s deck. I tied it off to the end cleat on the visitor’s dock. Then I noticed the owner of the CT on the other side of Mahdee was standing on the dock with a rope in his hand. I offered help if he needed it even before I noticed that he was pulling out several dock cleats and was in imminent danger of breaking free. Another boat owner showed up and we both quickly assessed the situation. The CT owner pulled out rope after rope and we put together a Mahdee-style web of 12 lines, but not without some really tense moments requiring the assistance of yet another fellow on the dock.
The CT was stable, but Gracie still needed more lines in my opinion. Fortunately the dock master and head maintenance man were both there. I asked them to put more lines on Gracie and they really needed more cleats too. The head maintenance man assured me that both were already in works. Shaking his head he said that these poor docks were never meant for weather like this! Soon additional new cleats were being screwed into the docks and dock carts full of lines were arriving to build a web for Gracie. The rising winds were the beginning of what was forecast to be the most powerful front of the week. The huge atmospheric low powering the winds was expected to set an all time barometric record for the downtown airport.
The winds rose and rose. Now with three very, very large boats on the visitors dock, the piling rollers that let the docks float up and down smoothly with the tides had broken in half or twisted and bent up so that the pilings were rubbing up against the bare wood of the dock structure. This week of howling winds was taking a heavy toll on the docks. On my periodic inspections, I was happy to see that all the cleats on the three boats were holding and that the lines were not chafing. The canvas work on the Grand Banks ripped in the wind, but the important stuff held.
As evening approached the sustained high winds dropped and we would have periods of almost calm. Then a squall line would come through with howling winds and torrential rains. Over night, the calms increased in duration and the squalls became shorter. According to NOAA, the winds during the squalls were up to 50 knots. So even though the weather was improving, it wasn’t possible to really relax.
FRIDAY
The squalls were still coming through, but between squalls, there was even sunshine! Brenda and I even went up to the club house to chat with others. Up until now, one of us was always onboard just in case and the other didn’t dare go more than a few hundred feet–a short dash away. While chatting with the others, a powerful squall pelted the place with sharp small hail. The place went icy–an unusual sight on the waterfront in San Diego for sure. We watched Mahdee from the shore during the squall and her web of dock lines was in top form. It was time, Mahdee was safe and we could now leave her to get some of those safety items that the past week’s weather had moved to the top of our to-do list. We got into the car and drove off to Harbor Freight for a Machete. As we pulled into the parking lot which is all the way around the bay from our marina, the cell phone rang. Brenda answered it. What? Mahdee had caught fire!! We pulled out of the parking lot and dashed back around the bay, not really knowing which way to go because we were about as far around the bay as one could possibly get.
One of the employees had heard the cracking noises of the electrical fire from a building at least 500 feet away. She looked out the window and saw smoke coming from the aft deck. She called out for the dock master and they ran down the dock and shut off the shore power circuit. Fortunately that was all that was needed. That last hail storm had pierced the temporary plastic covering on a connection next to the cockpit combing and let water into the plastic covering. The heating of the sun that came out next probably played a role too because it was sunny with no rain when I last left Mahdee before the fire. There is now carbon and char on the beautiful mahogany cover board and cockpit combing. I hope it won’t be too hard to fix.
Part of the reason we had rushed back to Mahdee was that even though the dock master reported that the fire was out, we have a computer running on an APC uninteruptable power supply (UPS) onboard. In theory, the UPS reports to the computer that the AC power is off. When the UPS battery runs down to a predefined level, the computer shuts down in an orderly way. In any case that is how many years of experience with these things has them working while living in a house. I haven’t figured out how an APC can tell it is on a boat (or for that matter, how a power cord can know–we had dozens of 110 volt and 220 volt cords sitting outside on the ground at the boatyard during Mahdee’s rebuild and they never caught on fire even while laying in puddles during driving rain). Within weeks of launching Mahdee, an APC caught on fire. Acrid smoke filled the boat while I tried to de-energize the damn thing. I carried the APC out of the boat still smoking and set it on the dock. Then a couple months later, someone at this very dock knocked apart our shore power cord while we were away from the boat. When we got back to the boat, another APC was almost molten. The internal lead acid battery had melted and deformed. The APC had somehow internally shorted out the battery and the thing had nearly ignited. Both of those two APC units went into the trash, but due to a former life rich in computers, I had several more APC units, two of which are connected to computers on Mahdee. So when this fire occurred, I wanted to get back fast to make sure those APCs were OK. Thankfully these APC units were not causing problems. As Brenda says, electrical devices are just prone to bursting into flames on boats. We are going to have to reevaluate our electrical dependencies.
Rather than going directly back to get the Machete, our new priority was the shore power cords with waterproof sealing collars. Our first attempt went awry, but some more trips to marine stores, more money spent, we now have a three piece shore power cord with water proof connections that will reach a shore power outlet nearly 150 feet away. We also have some other safety trinkets such as personal strobes and whistles for our life-vests. Three new knives that will make emergency departures with lots of dock lines and high winds more feasible. So even if nothing got checked off of my “inside” projects lists, we are a little more ready for departing San Diego–though a little lighter in the pocketbook. We also have some more experience under our belt. But, our time on the dock is coming to an end and we need to leave the dock tonight so it time to wrap this post up and send it to the Mahdee site so we can shut off the electricity. Once again we will be on anchor for a few days…or will it be weeks? Who knows what adventure awaits us. It seems that no matter how prepared you are, boating can be an extreme adventure even when located in what seems like the most benign of places–tied up at the marina visitors dock in San Diego.
