WHITE SQUALL: Lessons Learned

 While BIANKA survived the White Squall conditions from a weather front that blew through the harbor a few weeks ago. The same could not be said for the dingy. The heavy rain was not an issue but, the winds blew BIANKA around and whipped saw the attached Porta Bote dingy around and may have flipped or at least turned it 90 degrees at some point. Dumping some of the contents into the water. Including one of the Oars, seat cushion, outboard motor cover and anything else that was not attached like a plastic scrapper I use to clean the dingy bottom from time to time. So when things calmed down I took some of the lessons learned from the event and implemented a strategy to try and limit the damage during a future weather event.

OARS

Losing the Oar could have made trying to get back to the shore in anything but calm conditions. Keeping them in the dingy ready to use is important. So an easy fix was to use TY Wraps to create loops where I can attach a line secured to the dingy to help keep the Oars with the dingy.

I'll cut the excess tabs but, the loop will make a good place to attach a line to secure them.

if the Oars should happen to leave the dingy again since they float it makes sense to mark them with BIANKA's name in case any one finds them floating around the harbor. There is a better chance they will find there way back to the boat.

Since the Oars come in two pieces I used a DREMEL Tool make sure both pieces had my boats name on them.

CUSHION

Another Item that was lost in the storm was the seat cushion. It's not only on board for comfort it's also used as a flotation device. Labeling it will also help it getting it returned should it leave the dingy again.

 

MISC

One item that did leave the dingy after the storm but, I miraculously found floating next to BIANKA a few hours later was the outboard motor cover. I was able to grab it with the boat hook. Still no reason not to label it too.

WHITE SQUALL AT THE MOORING

 Exciting day on the boat. Weather front came through with White Squall conditions. I think the dingy might have flipped in the storm. Lost one of the oars and found the battery for the outboard floating outside the boat. Hope it still works going to be awkward trying to row to shore with one oar.

Luckily the battery was sealed and still powered the outboard. I made it back to shore though the battery started to fade on the way. Unfortunately, the charger is back on the boat and it will be tricky getting back out tomorrow.