Weekend Weather Washes Boats Ashore in Port San Luis

Central Coast resident and Latitude reader Jeff Chamberlain and his partner Paige were escaping cabin fever on Sunday and took a trip by Port San Luis to see if there was any storm damage. At first run it looked fine …

“We were there at maybe 10 a.m.-ish,” Jeff wrote, “and surprisingly, even though it was definitely pretty frothy out in the mooring field, I saw no fresh victims that had blown ashore, which kind of surprised me …?

“We took off after a time and and about 30 minutes later, my phone started blowing up with photos of three boats that had careened ashore. Looked like we had just missed the wave of boats that apparently had come to a foul end.”

On Monday Jeff went back to see what was going on.

“It was all a familiar scene out of my personal history,” he wrote.

“The usual case is that most of these boats never have any insurance of any kind, so the Port usually has to bear the cost of the vessel’s removal,” Jeff writes. “Trust me, this is a timeless story that just repeats itself most stormy years.”

“I’ve found that sailors are mostly dreamers, but this is usually a dream they never foresee for some reason,” Jeff continued.

“In most cases,” he says, “the ‘reason’ for this type of ordeal can usually be traced to the chafing gear coming up off the mooring and onto the vessel’s bow cleat/attachment.

“A true southerly blowing into Port puts the chafing gear and pennant through a merciless, ungodly ordeal,” Jeff says, adding that it’s not unusual for there to be some boats that can’t hold out against such force for an extended period of time, “without something breaking or giving way.”

We agree, it is sad to see these boats on the shore, and whether it’s due to chafing or some other reason, we again mourn the untimely loss of boats that otherwise appear to be in good, (mostly) seaworthy shape. We can’t stress enough: Check your gear, check your lines, and be prepared.