Bart,

This is the first week since I sold the Boat that I can say;"Glad she's
Gone!" Two days of GALE Winds 44mph gusting to 60 or seventy depend
where they were reporting from. My wind gauge topped at 62.

It was unbelievable how nice it was today but there is another one
heading right at us


http://community.webtv.net/tassail/ILLDRINKTOTHAT

Things were not so bad here Thom. Winds hit 42-43
knots-peak.

Today, I found one bow line damaged. One of the three
strands was cut through along with a section of chafe
gear. I'd set it the bow up with three different mooring
lines with the idea that one would stretch and then the
others would kick in as needed. The tightest one was the
one that was damaged. It worked out ok.

I thought I left enough slack in the bow, but I'm sure
the bow must have been pitching up and down a lot
more. When I left--I was moving about 18" or so. My
bow line leads more down than side-to-side. I'd prefer
to make it off farther to each side so the line is more
horizontal.

My neighbor didn't want me leading over to his cleat which I
did in the last storm because he tripped in the dark one night
and nearly fell in.

This storm was from the South, so I took a more horizontal
lead to the farthest cleat I could reach on the other side in
a now vacant slip. I was seriously worried I'd rip one of
my one cleats right out of the dock.

However, I see that I need better chafing gear--still.

I spliced up two more thimbles. So nearly everything
is on shackles and thimbles with eye splices. I have
one or two more to do. Which means my only worry
is chafe and inproving shock absorbtion on the bow
lines.

Many people in the club seem to fare better than I.
Most boats are powerboats that don't rock, roll, or
pitch as much as I do. I'm more vulnerable to wave
action than the powerboats.

Many people use 1" three strand. I've been using 5/8" lines
and I double everything up to prevent any single point of
failure. Even so, I'm thinking about going bigger on my
four main docklines, and putting in bigger cleats on the
main dock so I don't have to worry adn lose sleep over it.