Im tired and George and I are fine. My boat is unscathed save for some scratches in the boot top paint from debris. Luck is relevant because there is a checkerboard of destruction both in our marina and in the vicinity of Washington, North Carolina. Although a few things contributed to our successfully getting through Irene, the element of luck looms large.
We were trapped onboard owing to poor judgment and/or bad luck. The eye of the storm was due on Saturday at 1400, but it arrived much sooner. The nearby city of Washington had issued a curfew warning for 2200 Friday night while the county of Beaufort (not the city) posted a curfew of 1200 Saturday. We had planned to get off the boat NLT 1630 on Friday and worked to strip the exterior of the boat of potential flying objects and rearrange lines to cope with the anticipated for a surge of up to 13 feet of water. In fact, 1630 was 30 minutes too late. Water was lapping at the dock at 1600 with little wind and no waves. By 1630, there was 18 to 24 inches of water over the dock with moderate winds pushing small waves. The boarding ramp was swimming in the waves while still tethered to the boat and there was no way that I could get George ashore without his swimming. In that situation, I might have lost control over him so we were stuck. So, thats what I did wrong and thats a lesson learned: storm forecasts might not accurately reflect your micro-locations conditions. [As a side note; 5 feet of surge water disappeared in under 1 hour after the eye had passed us.] Two things weighed heavily on my mind: boredom and the fate of my car which had not been moved to high ground. I will end the suspense concerning the car; it is a total loss having suffered water over the dash or higher. Although I can usually occupy my mind with reading or other media, I could neither read nor listen to media owing to the absence of AC electricity. My inverter control panel (Xantrex) had locked-up and my generators exhaust elbow required replacement. I had dropped my iPod somewhere in the boat during storm preparation. My boredom resulted in my seeking to get off the boat at 1300 the following day. One thing we did right was rigging the lines so that the surge would be unlikely to remove the lines from the pilings while still keeping the vessel in the middle of the slip. The major hazard to the boat in the slip was a series of short pilings supporting the finger pier on her starboard side. I did not want to pound on top of them. As it turned-out, the boot top paint in a 4 foot section was scratched by these pilings at some time during the night. Normally, as a liveaboard, the boat hugs the finger pier with heavy fender protection. This keeps the boarding ramp in position and George (the 77 pound Golden Retriever) is 12 years old and doesnt like surprises. He can, however, sleep through significant portions of a hurricane. On the bow, I ran a 5/8 inch line from each mooring cleat to the highest point that I could reach one port and one starboard piling. I used a timber hitch to offer resistance to the ropes slipping down and place a clove hitch on top. As I wrapped the line once around the piling, there was little tension on the knots. I could have doubled-up the lines, but did not. I removed all the short lines from the starboard side to permit the boat to float in the center of the slip. I left the 2 stern lines, also 5/8 inch braid in place, but replaced one which was chafed. I took 2 , 5/8 inch braid lines which were 40 feet long and attached them to the midships cleats. A yard worked was kind enough to take them astern to 2 new pilings which used the full length of the lines. This would allow the boat to rise without requiring line adjustment. These lines were attached as high on the pilings as possible. Later, all these pilings would be submerged 2 feet below the surface. My 40 foot, 20 ton trawler rode well throughout the night and following morning as we experienced the left side of the hurricane. The counter-clockwise winds first hit from the East, then for a long time from the North, and then there was calm in the eye. The following West winds were enough to help drive out the surge water but not strong enough to cause any problems. I had experienced an eye once before as a teenager when I had to secure my familys 15 foot outboard. On this occasion, I used the eye time to run a line from a port spring cleat to a recently surfaced piling in a further effort to restrict the lateral movement of the boat which had been sailing over the finger pier 5 feet beneath her waterline. I couldnt face any more boredom and saw that my car *appeared* high and dry. I wanted to get ashore and George wanted to pee. Two young locals (late 20s) had appropriated a RIB to get a friend stranded on his sailboat. Later, they toured the destroyed marina looking for others to assist. Their strong arms lifted reluctant George into the RIB and helped me aboard. Later, we waded ashore through oil from sunken boats and other materials. A land adventure followed traveling flooded streets, downed trees and power lines and pushing a bow wave in some places. The façade of the motel was destroyed, but I was ushered in a room and told to register the following morning. I had a reservation for that night anyway. I turned the heat pump up to 85F and we warmed-up and dried out. Other people suffered great damage and loss, but no one was hurt in this area and thats what counts.
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