From: tflynn@encore.com (Tonya Flynn)
Subject: Hurricane Andrew
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 14:35:21 GMT
Organization: Encore Computer Corp., Ft. Lauderdale, FL



Wow!  What a weekend--what a week.  I have never been so sore, tired, punchy
and relieved in my entire life.  There, but for 40 miles, go us.

My best friend and her husband live about four miles inland along the
New River in Ft. Lauderdale and have a 36' sloop.  I keep my little
16' launch at their dock.  My SO lives in England and my friend's husband was
in England on business during the Andrew fiasco so the two of us women
were left alone to deal with the hurricane preparations.  Basically
we were responsible for three residences and the two boats and we didn't
have the foggiest idea what to do with the boats.  Here's our little 
story about what we finally did do with the boats.

We simply followed our instincts to prepare the boats.  We removed the
ships bell, barometer, thermometer and whatever electronics we could
from the boat and stored them in the house.  We stripped the
main and dropped and stowed the self-furling genoa.  Of course we also
stripped and stowed the awnings and bimini top.  We took some regular
garden hose and cut them in about 4' lengths and made a slice along the
lengths of them to form some sort of chafing protection for the lines.
We secured a small fender to the boom, again to prevent chafing, and 
lashed the boom to the deck.

The bridges between our location and the mouth of the river were closed
and locked about noon.  Around 6/7 PM, after the boats that were going up
river were up river, we used my boat to take the sailboat to the center
of the river.  We put one of the heaviest anchors out to
stern and another heavy one from the bow, leaving plenty of slack.  Then
we took two of the longest, heaviest lines we could find and secured them
to the biggest tree we could find on each side of the river.  (If we had
had two more lines that would have reached, we would have preferred to
put two more lines to shore but we used what we had.)  The last thing
we did before we left the boat to fend for herself was remove all the
ship's papers and documentation.

As for the launch, since we had no way to remove it from the water,
we simply stripped it and secured it to the dock with plenty of slack.
I kissed it farewell and considered it a goner.

When we left her, I felt fear that we might have overlooked something 
important, something that might make the difference between disaster and
survival, but I also felt that we had done everything we could for her.
Fortunately, I guess we'll never know if we 'did the right thing' since
Hurricane Andrew decided to challenge those boats 40 miles to our south.
I'm so relieved.  I never want to stare at the ugly face of a hurricane
again and I never want to share the responsibility of securing someone's
'dreamboat' again.  And that's my story.  We're just so lucky.

We survived,
Tonya
                                           |
Tonya (I'd rather be Sailing) Flynn       /|\      6901 W. Sunrise Blvd.
(305/797-2446)                           / | \     Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33313
"Let's just punch through that        ----------   UUCP:  uunet!gould!tflynn
sand bar"--Crew of Natty Dread          ------     INTERNET: tflynn@encore.com