SIDE VIEW
For those of you that participated in the January program (many thanks to David Eisenhaur of the Florida Marine Patrol), you REALLY missed it. Especially concerning the useful information that he gave out about everyone’s favorite subject, the MSD. Now that you know the rights and wrongs, it should be less pressure on all of us to do the right thing.
With that in mind, I’m sure that all of us are busy preparing our plans for this year’s cruise. Whether you’re going to sail off somewhere on the river by yourself, or participate in one of the many distance cruises that are being planned, you know by now that planning and preparations are the main ingredients to a successful voyage.
In the next month or so, one of our programs will be dedicated to helping in that planning and preparation. We’ll be getting together to discuss the various plans and see who all will be making the trips that are in the works. Whether you want to go north, south, or fly like a bird to the islands and just spend a couple of weeks on a charter boat (Ken and Leslie will be giving us ALL the details, I’m sure), there’s something cooking that will interest you.
However, in the meantime, there’s preparation of a different kind that needs to be made. If you’re the type of person that is compulsive about planning, you won’t have to worry. If you’re new to the club, or new to the area, or just new to sailing, you’ll want to participate in the upcoming program.
We’ll be welcoming a world famous Certified Meteorologist to our meeting. The first part of the program will be a discussion of weather systems, specifically Hurricanes and what we can expect when Jacksonville finally does become ground-zero for one of nature’s most extensive weather events. Following the discussion of big storms, there will be a round robin discussion of hurricane-preparation plans. There will also be information made available by the state specifically for those of us in Northeast Florida that are interested in boating and making sure that the boat is still there after the storm. I know it’s early yet, Hurricane Season doesn’t start until June, however it’s never too early to start thinking about the coming possibilities.
Believe it or not, I had a plan that lasted over ten years. All I was going to do was lower the mast on deck and go as far up Julington Creek as I could, tying off to trees once I was clear of any navigable channel. Somehow I think that plan will no longer apply as the mast on the Morgan has been described as ‘sturdy as a tree trunk, well planted in the keel’. Seems like it might be a little difficult to lift and lower by hand......