Indeed. Irene just crossed over so many of the Bahamian islands and cays we have grown to love and we hope the inhabitants have been spared too much misery.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those in her path as she heads for the US coast, too.

Glenn,

How are you making out...?

You East Coasters are definitely in my thoughts and prayers. MSN.com is showing a beached sailboat on their home page (a Hunter, I believe) and it makes me sick.:(

Good Luck To All, Mike

[QUOTE=dejavu;9844]You East Coasters are definitely in my thoughts and prayers. MSN.com is showing a beached sailboat on their home page (a Hunter, I believe) and it makes me sick.:(

Good Luck To All, Mike[/QUOTE]

I saw that coverage also. Hard to figure out how they came to be where they were given it was reported they were headed to up to Annapolis and ended up on a beach south of where they started from. It seems they left on Friday, lost their engine and decided to anchor 400 feet off what was forecast to be the lee shore of a hurricane. I wouldn't have willingly anchored where they were if there were a chance of a summer squall. Glad they got all including the cat off safely.

Anyway, I checked our boat today and we came through undamaged and with relatively minor damage to other boats in our marina (some shredded sails and dock rash mainly). We are about 20 NM south of Annapolis and it seems the north winds must have helped keep the surge from being as high as it could have been. It came within 2 feet of topping the docks during (Friday)correction: Satuday's afternoon's high tide which is when we got off the boat and went home having done the best we could to secure the boat for the high tide which would coincide with Irenes closest approach in the wee hours of Sunday. According to our dockmate that remained aboard throughout the next tide was only about 6" higher than the previous one and never topped our docks. I believe we got lucky.

I saw on the news that 4.5 million homes along the East Cost are without power. I guess many of our East Cost members are not on their computers tonight.

To Bill & Glenn, good news about your boats! I'm hoping that when the power comes back we don't get any bad reports.

Mike

That's great news....we can only hope for the same further up the coast.

Well She has come and she is gone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KAIROS was hauled and put on the hard.
I am really surprised that with, the wind projections people did not pay more attention. Insurance companies pay half of haul and re-launch if the projected cone is over your area, what the hell is wrong these people.

I am still in the dark as to why not haul on the side of caution instead of being smashed into a piling, or demasted as you go under a bridge that is in the closed postion, which I saw 7 of them do.
One guy was a friend, sheered the masted off like cutting through butter, not to mention a Hylas 54 getting thrown onto the rocks like it wighed nothing.

What I saw the most of, people not using CHAFFING GEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I hate to use the word but you have to be STUPID not too. WIth sustained winds of over 65knots for hours on end, it doesn't take a genuis to figure out something is going to wear and eventually part. Which it did for over 20 boats in New Bedford alone,.
I have a 3000lb mooring, brand new 1 1/2" bottom chain, 3/4" new top chain, a 15 foot 1/1/4" mega braid pennant I still hauled.

The problem is it seems, that it isnt our boat that we worry about it is the other boater who does not take the precautions that we took to secure our vessel for the approaching weather.
It's their boat that breaks free and either t-bones you or becomes hung in your gear, doubles the load on your mooring, and the gear fails, and off you go into the beach, or into another boat, or better yet into a dock broadside. right where another three boats are headed right after you (which I saw).

It isnt pretty watching a Valiant 37 a Little harbor 42, O'day 30 and a 58 steel ketch which weighed over 30 tons fight it out. Can you guess who won, I will help you it wasn't us fiberglass boaters.

Just a thought I figured I would type out.

I know the forecasters are not always correct. A little caution never hurt anyone, or a boat for that matter, sometimes they are spot on with the weather as was this case.

I re-launched today, Funny thing not a scratch on her, my mooring was right were I left it, and the best part Insurance payed half.

Glad you took appropriate precautions, Jeff, and that they paid off for you.

I echo your comment that other boaters who do not properly prepare are a real hazard. For Cat 4 hurricane Charley whose eye came right over us in 2004, our new to us and then-Bristol C36 was tied in a spider web of heavy lines in the middle of a 100 ft wide canal. She might have received a few hits from flying roof tiles had she stayed there. BUT, numerous boats not even remotely prepared for the storm broke loose and played billiards with our boat and others in our canal community.

The damage was pretty extensive and she will never be the same cosmetically again. As for why I did not haul, well, I was brand new to both boat ownership and Florida. To be candid, I still may not haul in the face of an approaching hurricane while I have my present job since an approaching hurricane has me 'on duty' at work, and taking my boat to haulout is a 3/4 day process.

That Is true I meant no disrepect toward anyone in that area. I should have used a better choice of words.

Thanks Jeff:)

Jeff, I took zero offense at anything you wrote, so no worries there.

I was merely adding a perspective, as I am often wont to do. :)

Here in Punta Gorda, Florida there are more boats than haul out/storage facilities. During Hurrican Charley a good deal of the boats on the hard were toppled over into each other in the 178 mph wind. Many boats were safely tied to their docks, but some broke loose and went up an down the canals bouncing like a pinball machine into other boats and seawalls. We were lucky this time, but our fellow boaters up North were not. I guess it's all part of being a boat owner and the luck of the roll of the dice. Just do what experience has taught in securing the boat and stay safe.