Irene

This past weekend, 8/28/11, we had a bit of a storm work it's way up the east coast.  On Thursday morning, 8/25, it hadn't made landfall in North Carolina yet and the projected storm track showed it hugging the coastline but staying in the Atlantic after crossing part of North Carolina.  The winds were a steady 110 knots, gusting higher.  If it stayed on this course I felt like we'd be OK at our marina because we'd be far enough from the storm that the winds would be less than 65 knots and the wind direction wouldn't cause serious flooding.

At noon that day I checked the National Hurricane Center's website and the update now showed Hurricane Irene coming inside the Chesapeake Bay with 100 knot winds.  Double Yikes!  I'm not kidding, my hair stood on end.  This was a whole different game.  Storm surge would be a serious problem with water being pushed into our creek from the Bay.  In 2003 Hurricane Isabel brought a storm surge of over 7.5' to our creek.  Once I got my hair back under control I left work early and headed home.  When I got to the marina I put our boat on a list to have her hauled and stored on the hard.  This costs about $700 but insurance pays for half so it's not too bad.  I was told we had about 100 boats ahead of us and chances were pretty slim of us getting hauled.  OK, it's worth a shot.

I figured I had about 48 hours to get ready for the worst.  I hadn't been through this drill before so I didn't know how much time I needed to get ready.  I started that afternoon by removing the Bimini and Dodger canvas.  This gave me access to the solar panels.  I felt it was a good idea to get them down because it was a good chance that they'd catch that 110 knot wind and rip the Bimini frame right off the boat.  Once I had all that removed I tied down the frame.  We removed the Genoa and Staysail and rolled the Main up (furled) inside the mast as tight as she would go.  The idea here was to reduce the area exposed to the wind as much as possible

By Friday morning we got another update on the storm and now they were saying it would track out to the Atlantic, just as they had said originally.  In addition to that they thought the winds would be reduced to about 85 knots.  If it holds to that then we'd be OK.  We had already done more than was necessary but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.  We doubled up all our dock lines and prepared things down below as if we were going out sailing.

On Saturday the marina informed us they'd be shutting off the water at noon and the power at 1700.  OK, guess we won't even have to consider sticking around.  At this point the storm was working it's way across North Carolina.  The sky was overcast but we had no rain yet and just a light breeze.  My sister and brother-in-law, Ellen and Ed, offered us refuge at their place, which we gladly accepted.  Thanks guys, we really appreciate it.  We got to their place around 1500 and the rain was just starting.  We all hunkered down in front of the TV and watched the news reports.  This was a big mistake because those reporters are more interested in drama than giving the real story so they tend to exaggerate like crazy.  I'm sitting there listening to these goons and by 2300 I couldn't take it anymore.  The storm was supposed to peak in our area around 0200 Sunday morning and I just had to get down to the boat and see how she was doing.  I mean, the wind was blowing straight across the Bay and the water could be high at the dock requiring an adjustment of the dock lines.  Or the bilge pump coulda failed and I needed to be down there to bail.  That boat is our home, has everything we own aboard and I just couldn't sit there and listen to those idiots on TV anymore.

The three of us, Cheri, me and Bella, piled into our car and cruised on down.  The rain was coming down in sheets and the windshield wipers were on full blast and could hardly keep up.  The wind was blowing pretty good too.  Luckily we were just about the only car on the road so I felt pretty comfortable driving 45 MPH on the the Baltimore Beltway and then down Rte 97 into Annapolis.  We got on Rte 2 and headed south and as soon as we got out of Edgewater we saw flashing lights.  Trees were down across the road.  There was a cop there but as we drove up he cut around the tree and headed south at 35 MPH.  Well what else could we do but follow?  We had a police escort all the way down to Deale.  Cool!  Along the way we had to drive around several more downed trees but it wasn't really dangerous or anything.  Just kinda surreal.  We got to the marina around 0030, grabbed a flashlight and walked down to the boat.  As we walked down the dock we were relieved to see that the water level was pretty normal.  This was a big relief for me because I figured as the storm went further north the wind would veer around out of the north and drive the water out of the Bay, meaning less chance of flooding as the storm progressed.  So we were already pretty much out of danger from storm surge.  I think the wind was blowing about 65 knots steady at this point and the rain was now coming down even harder.  When we got to the boat she was sitting in the center of the slip, heeling over with the wind but in absolutely no danger.  I shined the light up and down her length, didn't see anything wrong and decided to head back.  Three hours of driving, up and back, for a two minute visual confirmation.  In that two minutes we were totally soaked to the skin.  It was worth it, let me tell you, just for the peace of mind.  We got back safely around 0230 and climbed into bed and slept like babies.

Looking back on things now I can see that I totally over-reacted and did way more than I had to.  We could have left the sails and canvas on as well as the solar panels.  It was right to have doubled up on the dock lines and securing for sea down below was definitely a good idea too.  I don't regret having done too much because if I hadn't then the storm woulda come right up the Bay and clobbered us.  I'm pretty sure that's how that works.