Stormy Weather

We've had NE gales for 4 days here in Chicago. The water is brown because the bottom is so stirred up; it's only 30 feet or less deep. Went down to check on it this morning, discovered my spring line had shredded and the harbormaster had installed a new one. I added another spring to a spare cleat and added another forward line to the starboard side, I didn't like the looks of the original. The other 2 were okay. We have floating docks and they were rocking and rolling. Went to West Marine this afternoon and bought a 5/8 inch new dock line for the spring. The one that failed was 1/2 inch. This one has 11,000 lbs breaking strength. We'll see how that works. Our harbormaster and some close by club members have been keeping the boats safe, so far no damage. Except for my dock box, which the bow of my boat knocked loose when the spring failed, but so far no other serious damage, but we have to get through tomorrow yet. Winds are supposed to diminish late tomorrow. This is usually what we get in November. Our harbormaster was unhappy when he got sent to our harbor, the smallest, from the largest, Monroe. He loves being here now and he does a great job. Keeping my fingers crossed for the next day.David Dobbs, CAL29 411, still afloat

David, lucky you have a good dock master who cares. The same can't be said for the folks that run my dock in Marina del Rey. They are non-boaters and clueless. In the past they've not done their job, and they hire sub contractors who've rifled and destroyed the contents of boater's dock boxes. Anyone who's a legitimate contractor knows you don't use cheap framing nails to rebuild an outdoor deck, let alone a salt water floating dock. Apparently, gouging the boaters with slip fees 40% higher than comparable marinas in California (eg.:San Francisco) isn't enough to satisfy their greed. Gerald Sobel On Saturday, October 3, 2015 2:02 PM, "david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: We've had NE gales for 4 days here in Chicago. The water is brown because the bottom is so stirred up; it's only 30 feet or less deep. Went down to check on it this morning, discovered my spring line had shredded and the harbormaster had installed a new one. I added another spring to a spare cleat and added another forward line to the starboard side, I didn't like the looks of the original. The other 2 were okay. We have floating docks and they were rocking and rolling. Went to West Marine this afternoon and bought a 5/8 inch new dock line for the spring. The one that failed was 1/2 inch. This one has 11,000 lbs breaking strength. We'll see how that works. Our harbormaster and some close by club members have been keeping the boats safe, so far no damage. Except for my dock box, which the bow of my boat knocked loose when the spring failed, but so far no other serious damage, but we have to get through tomorrow yet. Winds are supposed to diminish late tomorrow. This is usually what we get in November. Our harbormaster was unhappy when he got sent to our harbor, the smallest, from the largest, Monroe. He loves being here now and he does a great job. Keeping my fingers crossed for the next day.David Dobbs, CAL29 411, still afloat

Gerry,We have Westrec Marinas managing our harbors, and I have been one of their most vocal critics, but they have stepped up and have done a great job for the last couple of years. We have an umbrella organization of all the yacht clubs and boating clubs and even some of the yacht yards called the Chicago Yachting Association, which meets monthly with Westrec and the Chicago Police Marine Unit, and the USCG to discuss issues and make sure that everyone knows what's going on, etc. Even the hoity-toity Chicago Yacht Club is a member. The meeting is held at a different club every month. The CYA presents a strong voice for boaters with the city, and Westrec and is respected. We are lucky in that all our harbors are Chicago Park District owned. The whole lakefront in Chicago, about 32 miles of shoreline is park land. With the exception of the Chicago Yacht Club, they own their land, were there before the CPD even existed. My club has a lease for the land, going back to 1896. We own the building. We had a serious fire about a year ago, and were lucky that the insurance did not total the building. If they had the CPD would never have allowed us to rebuild, our lease would have been terminated.When I was commodore I used to grouse about paying that damn insurance bill every year, it wasn't cheap. Guess it finally paid off, we also got some nice improvements as part of the repairs.David Dobbs, past commodore, Jackson Park Yacht Club Chicago On Saturday, October 3, 2015 5:15 PM, "Gerald Sobel so… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: David, lucky you have a good dock master who cares. The same can't be said for the folks that run my dock in Marina del Rey. They are non-boaters and clueless. In the past they've not done their job, and they hire sub contractors who've rifled and destroyed the contents of boater's dock boxes. Anyone who's a legitimate contractor knows you don't use cheap framing nails to rebuild an outdoor deck, let alone a salt water floating dock. Apparently, gouging the boaters with slip fees 40% higher than comparable marinas in California (eg.:San Francisco) isn't enough to satisfy their greed. Gerald Sobel On Saturday, October 3, 2015 2:02 PM, "david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: We've had NE gales for 4 days here in Chicago. The water is brown because the bottom is so stirred up; it's only 30 feet or less deep. Went down to check on it this morning, discovered my spring line had shredded and the harbormaster had installed a new one. I added another spring to a spare cleat and added another forward line to the starboard side, I didn't like the looks of the original. The other 2 were okay. We have floating docks and they were rocking and rolling. Went to West Marine this afternoon and bought a 5/8 inch new dock line for the spring. The one that failed was 1/2 inch. This one has 11,000 lbs breaking strength. We'll see how that works. Our harbormaster and some close by club members have been keeping the boats safe, so far no damage. Except for my dock box, which the bow of my boat knocked loose when the spring failed, but so far no other serious damage, but we have to get through tomorrow yet. Winds are supposed to diminish late tomorrow. This is usually what we get in November. Our harbormaster was unhappy when he got sent to our harbor, the smallest, from the largest, Monroe. He loves being here now and he does a great job. Keeping my fingers crossed for the next day.David Dobbs, CAL29 411, still afloat

On 10/3/2015 5:01 PM, david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > We've had NE gales for 4 days here in Chicago. The water is brown > because the bottom is so stirred up; it's only 30 feet or less deep. My other boat lies over on the Lake Huron side (Saginaw Bay) and it blew from the north for 7 days (maybe 8, but I haven't gone online to check this morning). Usually the NE storms last 3 days. The aluminum pram sitting upside-down on my Mom's seawall blew over the wall Fri. night, the first time ever. I had a big red mooring ball out on an old anchor and the nylon line I had seized it on with parted. Luckily, it did so in the morning and a neighbor spotted it and snagged it with a boathook. The sailboat is in a marina so it's OK, except that between the wind, waves, and rain, there was no late-season sailing this weekend. And yeah, we had the same stirred-up muddy waters on Saginaw Bay. We also had N and E winds here on the Lake Michigan side. Those are what brought the 44' boat onto the seawall last week. It makes me happy that my boat is on her trailer and off her mooring. I have the mooring checked every few years but I still worry. All it takes is one bad link in the chain. Chris Campbell