Hurricane Irene Be Comin' ! ! ! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Well, it looks as though New London may get a visit from Hurricane Irene sometime over the coming weekend. How big a beasty she will be is difficult to say right now as is where she actually might be going, but all indications are that she will scoot up the east coast and bounce off South eastern New England, which means south eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island and the Cape. She could be a Category One when she gets here, possibly a Two and maybe even a Three, none of which is a particularly good thing. The sign that it is really going to be bad is if the subs all star going out to sea. So far, only one out and one in this morning.

So what shall I do? Right now ABISHAG is "crippled." She is without her alternator which means no juice and not being able to run the engine, as the belt that goes from the engine's flywheel to turn the alternator also turns the raw water pump that cools the engine. True, ABISHAG is a "sail"boat and she can sail, but if I wanted to move up a river and sneak into a "hurricane hidey-hole," an engine would be a necessity. It would also be a very "useful" accessory in setting anchors again any blow. So it does not appear that I will be going anywhere at this time.

Truth be told, there are not many places to go anyhow. One popular spot is Hamburg Cove up the Connecticut River. It is very popular in storms. Very Popular. That means it will be crowded and a crowded hurricane hole in a hurricane is not necessarily a place you want to be. Even if you get there early, others will come after you. As more and more come, the less and less careful will be the setting of anchors and the running of lines. This will mean that swing room will quickly become a problem and the whole situation will become even more dangerous when the last minute boaters show up in a panic and further confuse and make dangerous an already iffy situation. I will, in all likelihood, stay right where I am. I have been through one real hurricane here at TYC, Hurricane Gloria(maybe it was Bob) and did very well. Even though my mooring int he river might seem "exposed," it is guarded, east band west, by the shorelines of the river and from the south by Long Island and Fishers Island. It actually has some pretty good protection from the wind and waves. The mooring on which she sits is an 850 pound mushroom that has has 4 years to really bury itself in the river bottom. Attached to it is 15 feet of 1 inch chain and another 30 feet of 3/8 inch chain. The pennant is 1 inch nylon and the whole works was inspected and approved just in June. I will "hurricane proof" ABISHAG, removing all the items on deck that might fly away(cushions, etc) and anything that might increase windage (sails, dodger, bimini, etc) and double up the lines and generally seal her up. After that, it will be a case of "wait and see." When Ol' Irene does show up, if she does, I will spend the time ashore. If I don't have the alternator back and installed by then, there really won't be anything I could do aboard anyhow except get bounced around like a ping pong ball in a washing machine, something, by the way, that sounds not the least bit attractive. Even with the alternator back and the engine running, I doubt I could do much to assist her even with the engine running full bore. No, I'll stand on the TYC Clubhouse porch with the other" hard cases" and watch the storm. We did that the last time too. There is nothing that you can really do if something goes really wrong for someone, but there is that sense that you just have to see it, whatever happens.

Then again Irene might just shuffle off to Bermuda, die a quick death off Cape Hatteras, or wander aimlessly off toward Greenland. Who knows? All the computer models and forecast can tell you is what might happen. They really only get usefully accurate when something does happen and they can tell you that it did. Ah, the boys and girls of NOAA!