IRENE

[bkwesq]

Nothing much to speak of here in New Jersey - winds may have hit 40 but we didn't lose power and I added more blocks to the boat that didnt move. Hope everyone else was as blessed

[Torcan]

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

Always..you are part of the family

Looks like the Outer Banks got hammered pretty bad. Hoping you rode this one out with very little damage.(fingers crossed)

Thinking of everyone in the path that is a member here...and there are many..too many actually.

Might be a while before we get any updates from some of the members, as they wait their turn to be re-connected to the rest of us, electricity, internet..etc.

Good Luck everyone.

[alexander38]

well we made out ok...took 3 hrs to clean up the yard, went up to the boat it came thru just fine

[BobCT]

I hauled my boat before the storm and was worried about the surge. I went to the marina at the height of the storm (wife loved that move) and all seemed ok.

I went back home and planned to go back around 3 hrs later at high tide. That's when it got scary. I pulled up to the marina entrance and one of the kids came racing out w/ his truck. He said he "barely made it out and your boat is almost floating".

I waded about waist deep down the road and saw my boat sitting on the blocks with props/shafts underwater. 45 mins until high tide and getting higher. It was total bedlam, people racing all over the place.

I got onto the boat, dropped the hook and ran it over to a fence railing. I then ran a stern line to the travel lift behind me. I figured if it started floating at least I could keep it in the same general area. Next, I tied off the boats in front of me so they wouldn't float into my stern.

I grabbed a wrench and loosened the drain plug so if it was close, I could let some water INTO the boat and maybe keep it on the stands. All of this in 60 MPH winds and now chest deep in water.

The tide/surge timing was dead on, it peaked at almost exactly the hour predicted. The water got to just below the drain plug and then started slowly going down. My last ditch effort would have been starting the engines and trying to hold my position for a while. I wasn't going down without a fight.

I was really lucky, another 10" or so and it would have floated right off the stands. A couple of boats sank, lots of busted up swim platforms for guys who stayed in. The marina has lost of damage, the water came right up to the clubhouse, garage and office were flooded.

After all that, I went home for a few hours to decompress, came back and it was like nothing happened. All the water was gone....

I'm in no rush to get back in even though the weather couldn't be better. There is so much stuff in the water, it's going to take a bunch of tide cycles to wash it all up on shore.


Bob

[alexander38]

you all up north got hit bad, I'm sadden to see all the damage...

[aweimer]

BobCT - I'm glad you made it, quite an event!

[MattSC]

Glad to hear that everyone has made it through OK so far. I had a similar experience to BobCT, I did haul out before the storm. I'm up on the Housatonic River in Shelton CT, and the river overflowed the bank, (worst I've seen there in 18yrs) flooded out our clubhouse and shop and flooded the lot. The staff at the marina worked their tails off trying to make sure they didn't lose any boats. They tied us all up to anchor points to keep the boats in the general area if they floated off. Luckily for everyone the water level started to drop before anyone's boat suffered any damage or loss. If the water rose another foot, it would have been a very sad day. I will never forget the sick feeling in my gut when I waded out to my boat.

Matt

[pk]

Nice you all made it trough the stormy weather! The weather guys here in Norway predicted that Irene will visit me into this weekend. The said it is reduced to a normal late summer storm, maybe with windspeed around 40-50 miles. And offcourse lots of rain. Maybe if I put my nose into the stormy wind I will feel the smell of the eastern coast of USA?

[BobCT]

Matt, your story DOES sound familiar. My original plan when I thought through a "what if" scenario last year was running up the Housatonic or CT River as far as possible.

After watching the news, maybe that wouldn't be such a great idea as the CT river is still flooding. I think I just need to block it in a different spot next time which hopefully isn't 10 days away

PK - interesting observation. I always thought when big storms like this left the US Coast that was the end of them. This thing has traveled half way around the world.


Bob

[MattSC]

Hi Bob,
I'm about 9 miles up the Housatonic River, we are the last set of Marinas that you can access from LI Sound. Usually it's a pretty safe place, though after a storm you do have to be careful in the river for debris, especially just north of the Sikorsky Bridge. I'm in no rush to go in now, there is a ton of debris so I'm going to wait a bit. There were several factors working against us, the new moon plus the storm hitting at high tide. I've only seen the river over the bank twice previously, but it was not even close to what we experienced this past weekend. I'm going to have to rethink this over, as I couldn't get much further away from the river where the boat was blocked. I heard several marinas suffered quite a bit of damage in your area, hope everyone is making out ok. What part of New Haven are you in?

PK,
Wish you all the best with the storm, let us know how you make out.

Matt

[pk]

Yeah, I´ll let you know..... Met-guy says it gonna hit tonight......