I wrote this letter to Steve Morrell editor of Southwinds Magazine this morning that I share with you here.

Steve in response to your query on what to do with loose lines during a hurricane on page 34 of SOUTHWINDS MAGAZINE in the section called Hurricane Pages I would suggest the following Slippery Solutions. In October of 2004 I was on the Rio Dulce in a little settlement called La Bacidilla right across the bay from the private airport owned by various los ricos (the rich) and ex presidents of Guate (Guatemala) with El Golfette (The Little Gulf) in sight to the northeast and Monkey Mountain to the southeast whose cloud cover always predicted local weather. This idyllic setting began to unravel on October 19 on the Northwest Caribbean Radio Net when Dave, one of the weather guys, told us about a storm hovering offshore which had the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded named Wilma. I've had several encounters with hurricanes and fear them even more than criticism from fellow boaters who sometimes kid me about my incessant preparations. For example when I first docked at George Morgan's little Gringo enclave I arranged my lines as if a Hurricane was bearing down at that very moment. However Dave's description of the storm and its proximity to my position stirred me to even greater heights. I ran out an anchor forward with two hundred feet of chain to prevent me from driving back into George's sort-of restaurant which for some reason he calls the Boom-Boom Room. Never got a satisfactory answer to why he chose that name.

While pondering the direction of the storm's impending winds on my little dock as it was headed directly at the mouth of the Rio Dulce that morning I designed Hurricane Finder you so kindly advertise in your magazine. Part of my hurricane preparations was to remove all sails, roller furling jib, mainsail and awnings. Then I ran down all jib halyards and while pulling down the main halyard remembered the problem I'd had years before on the Caloosahatchee Waterway in reinserting halyards through the close confines of the mast head and then it was flat on saw horses, just as the loose end of the line fell on my head, to late to reconsider. However from past experience lines create huge windage on the upper part of the boat and contribute to forces increased by the lever arm of the mast that drive you into docks or pull out anchors. They also break loose and become missiles that can behead passing unfortunates. Mi amigo Capitan Pulpo (Octopus) who docks his fishing boat at Marina del Sol, the little marina I stayed at in Isla Mujeres, Mexico in 2005 said that during Wilma's assault he wore a motorcycle helmet to protect against flying halyards and strangely enough the roller furling of George Morgan's catboat Gordita  (Little Fat One) that was unfortunately not beside me at his dock on the Rio on October 20 through 21. My solution to the ends of dock lines is to coil and tie them in a neat bundle so they don't blow away as I can't afford to cut loose ends off, particularly in places where they're hard to replace. As you know Wilma didn't move into Guatemala but devastated Isla Mujeres and Cancun before moving on to the festivities in Florida.

And now back to those slippery solutions. The day after Wilma moved on to its destiny and all fear of further involvement over I began to put all awnings, etc back. I did this on the next day, the next one too and the next as I found while standing at the top of my mast for hours that those halyards were not going back through the mast head. I remember receiving jabs from all the regulars of the Boom-Boom room about my problem as they sat looking out from the third-floor windows, NEREIS in full view below. I was the entertainment again. No problem we all get to fill that role at one time or another. I tried pushing the bulky end of the line through, it snagged. I tied string to the line's end and tried pushing the string through; the string never saw the other side. I tied the string's end to a wire which easily penetrated but the blunt end of the line jammed. All of this for hours, moving from deck to masthead, all under the gaze of my critics, my good friend Jim Hupe one of the most prominent.

Finally I found the solution and of course it occurred in the early morning while all those folks were sleeping away the merriment of the previous night. I took a butane grill igniter and melted the loose yarn-like outer portion of the rope until the hard inner core was exposed and further shaped it to fit with the igniter and a flat screwdriver. Plastic ropes are malleable.  Ah ha, I thought, this has to work. Of course it snagged on whatever resides in dark hidden places thirty-five feet over the deck.

Had another cup of coffee and while sitting in my little cabin, exactly the size of a jail cell only smaller, legs resting on the table spied my liquid dish detergent next to the galley sink. Of course, the SLIPPERY SOLUTION. A liberal dousing of the line's end and in the blink of an eye it slid through as easily as, well you know, I don't have to explain everything in this G Rated column.

This was a three day ordeal but the result was the first draft of Hurricane Finder'S instruction manual and eventually www.globalweathersolutions.com that you so kindly advertise for me in SouthWinds Magazine.

Take care,

JB

WIRE WITH STRING ATTACHED




STRING ATTACHED DIRECTLY TO LINE

FINAL SUCCESSFUL RESULT WITH THE ADDITION OF LIQUID SOAP