On Tuesday evening as the sun set in a clear sky, shrimper Aaron Comegys tied a couple of extra lines between his boat, Hat Trick, and his slip at the Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove.
“We take everything that’s up top and put it down below,” said Comegys, who lives aboard a sailboat moored out in the bay—though he won’t be sleeping there if a storm comes through.
“I did Isaac back in 2012 on my boat and it sucked,” said Comegys. He was stuck for 36 hours after his skiff blew away and left him stranded with no way to get back to shore.
This time, he made a hotel reservation for himself and his dog, Jack.
Boaters—professional and recreational—across South Florida are clearing decks and double-checking lines ahead of Hurricane Matthew. And preparing a boat for storm-force winds isn’t like putting shutters on a house.
The U.S. Coast Guard Storm Center offers advice for boaters on its website, including:
- Do not go out to sea in a recreational boat to "ride out" a hurricane.
- If you are unable to move your boat, contact local marinas for advice.
- Use extra fenders. Some people even lash used tires to boats to protect them.
- Double up and secure mooring lines.
- Secure all hatches and portals and cover windscreens.
- Take down masts whenever possible.
- Remove all loose items from decks and superstructure and from areas around mooring. Leave nothing unsecured. Never forget that storms move quickly and they are unpredictable. You can always replace a boat; you cannot replace a life.
For Allison Sage, who crews a 112-foot yacht that just sailed back to Fort Lauderdale on Monday after a summer up north, hurricane prep meant clearing loose items, locking cabinets, and moving upriver.
She saw a lot of boaters doing the same, hoping for calmer waters.
“There’ve been boats coming up the New River all day,” she said.
“Everybody’s freaked out except me,” said Randy Grant, who goes by Capt. Skeletor around the Dinner Key Marina.
Grant said many of the smaller craft owners he knows were searching for sheltered spots to moor their boats among the mangroves.
He paid $500 for his own live-aboard, so Grant’s not too worried about what happens to it. His plan is to grab his paperwork, pull the outboard motor off his dinghy and sleep in a truck if he has to.
“I’m not going to stay on a boat in a storm,” he said.
