Hurricane Richard

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Hurricane Richard

Sorry for the lenght of time since last posting, but have been very busy, and most of the time, away from Annah Foster. For the first time in almost a year, I have been sleeping on land in a real bed, and getting to take nice long hot showers, having met a friend who lets me sleep there.

Richard came to Roatan, and as he passed over, moved up from Cat 1 to Cat 2, affecting the western part of the island more than over in French Harbor, where Fantasy Island is. She sits in almost the most sheltered spot around Fantasy, and I didn't worry too much through the night. With help from a friend, I took out my main anchor 90 degrees from the bow, and then rigged something of a bridle and ran it to the stern cleat. Before doing that, we ran dock lines to mangroves and trees on shore, so the anchor pulled her out, away from the dock. The present docks are in very bad shape and a major concern is their breaking up and then damaging the boat, as the lumber washes in the waves.

I actually spent the night of the storm with a friend up in the hills above West End, and filmed the storm through a window early - about 6am - from the veranda, as well as snapping some pics on the trip back out to Fantasy the next day. See below. The damage was mostly on the West End of the island although a friend at Fantasy, who's boat is in one of the most vulnerable locations, bumped the dock several times after his fenders blew up onto his deck. He said it was so rough that he couldn't come out into the cockpit, to flip them back over the stern, as he was med-moored (backed up tied to the dock with a bowline out on a mooring ball or anchor line.).

The next day, we returned to Fantasy to survey the damages and a couple days later, returned again to retrieve the anchor and re-tie the boat to the dock. Is so much easier to do things with a helper along, and I am not sure I could have hauled in the anchor by myself. Sure made it easier.

Most of the damage here was mud slides, fallen trees, and the power was off for a day. We heard metal roofing tearing off a house below in the middle of the night, but they were replacing it the next day, as, surprisingly, the locals were cleaning up the debris and clearing the fallen trees from the roads. It was much to do about nothing, really, but, of course could have been devasting.

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.