Fuel Dock Events

We had been warned to expect heavy southerly "Kona" winds of possibly 40 or 50 knots last night. Brenda and I prepared the boat for heavy winds hitting Pachuca from the stern. Brenda removed the cockpit spray dodger and folded the frame forward, then she removed both rail spray cloths. I cleared the decks of loose items and stowed the Zodiac.

Pachuca is moored Mediterranean style with her bow to the jetty and her stern to the South. I was advised to do it this way for privacy and to be able to watch the glorious sunsets from the cockpit. Holding her stern out are three lines connected to anchors left by previous tenants. The state of the anchors and lines is unknown. Unfortunately I am not able to put down my own anchor because it would surely be fouled by all of the junk already on the bottom. So for the expected blow I got two more stern lines from the vacant pen between Pachuca and Impulse so that Pachuca wound up with 5 stern lines.

At the last minute I covered up our exposed non-waterproof "Lifetag" base station then jumped on the Alden on Pachuca's starboard side and secured her mizzen mast to make sure that it would not fly around and slam into Pachuca's pushpit.

The photo above shows Pachuca ready for the Kona wind. Her rail and cockpit spray dodgers have been removed and the frame folded down. A blue tarp has been put over the instruments above the companionway to protect the "Lifetag" man-overboard base station. At the stern you can see the 5 lines going out. On the other side of the cockpit is the boom of the neglected Alden that I secured. On the foredeck of Pachuca is the ground tackle that cannot be put into the anchor well area until I make a new opening on the upper level to accommodate the extended hawser pipe.

The beautiful thing about good preparation is that it usually turns out not to have not been necessary. We got winds of no more than 20 knots and very little rain - so far at least. But the work was not wasted. Pachuca is now prepared for any future blow that might come up from the south.

Yesterday I was honored by Nelson, captain/owner of the Princess TaiPing, diving into the murky waters below my bow to find a screwdriver that I had dropped. I had tried diving for it but the water was so murky and my bottom time was so short that I had to give up. Nelson was using fins which were a help. He also figured that the screwdriver had gone down point-first and only the green handle would be exposed. He felt around the bottom and found it.

Wally and Kerry are leaving for the mainland today to visit relatives. They expect to be back on Feb 1. For me the place won't be the same without them.