Good morning, well we are in for another hurricane, "'Rick" this time, and he is going to be a bad one according to all the prognosis. Gary is coming back from Canada to help prepare the boat. Hurricane preparation is quite a big job, we have to take down all the sails from the roller furling gear, and we have two, the genoa and the little stay sail. The last hurricane Jamica, we wrapped the main sail like a sausage and I don't know if Gary will do that again, or choose to take it down. Then of course all the sun-shade stuff, and if we had a soft dodger that would have to come down as well. We have a hard dodger, which gives great protection but extra windage. Then of course anything that could be a projectile and of course all the extra ropes and lines and buckets etc. Last time it was a 2 day job, with us going all the time, some of the boats here have started already, and "Rick" is still 5 days out. Fortunately??,I had to do some of that for the tropical storm "Patricia" that went thru this past week, so we have a head start on some of the work.

They are predicting winds up to category 5, and right now it is at category 4, hopefully it will have decreased by the time it reaches us. 5 out of 6 tracks puts it right in our neighborhood, so it is something to take very serious.

One of the hardest things for yachties to overcome is the mental stress that comes with these hurricanes. For most of us, weather comes and goes and is at most an inconvenience while living safely in a house, but having to face all the wind and sea of a hurricane can be very daunting. That's one reason why they have hurricane parties after it is all over, just to relieve the pressure that everyone has been under.

So, tomorrow I have to pick up a rental car and drive off to Cabo and pick up Gary, and we will start the "clear the boat" procedure.

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