IRENE, D-Day - 2

SHIP'S LOG:

Well, things are certainly shaking around here! Panic hasn't quite set in, but it is coming . . . . and so is Irene! Yesterday, a few people stopped by to tend there boats, or move them, or to just wander around tapping into the "collective wisdom" of others who were around. What to do? What to do?

Right now, most of the boats are still on their moorings though some have headed up the River to boatyards and marinas, some to get hauled ($300 to haul, $300 to launch, for a three day stay). This plan has a major flaw in that these places are/will overload their storage facilities and, in the rush to get as many boats out as possible, the crews will not be as studious and as careful in the blocking. No masts will be taken down and that means windage and if one goes over, it can, probably will start a domino effect. A temporary slip is going for $30/ foot on average and marinas are using every foot of dockspace they have to take in as many boats as possible. Wind and/or storm surge can raise real havoc. Fixed docks means that you have to guestimate the length of your lines and if you are off to any considerable degree, it means busted lines and/or cleats ripped from your boat. And surely one boat will get loose and pinball around in the middle of a lot of boats.

Boats on moorings have their own problems. No matter how carefully one prepares a boat on a mooring, there is always the chance that someone else didn't take the time or make the effort, after all, that's what insurance is for! For moored boats, the problems are mooring pennants that chaffe through and/or cleats that pull out; boats which have broken loose and pinball their way through the fleet;mooring that pull as the storm surge rocks the boats up and down; and the possibility that some piece of the mooring set up lets go thus making the remainder, though perfectly good, perfectly useless in keeping the boat safe. Ah the fun of boat ownership.

ABISHAG will be on her mooring. As far as the diver could tell, he mooring system is in top shape. I have pretty much stripped the topsides and will secure everything else below. I got the alternator back and will re-install it today to make sure the batteries are up to snuff. I'll pump the bilges, shut the seacocks, turn off the propane, and locker her up tomorrow and then watch the proceedings from the club house.

IRENE should make her entrance( according to current predictions) around 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Her current course is actually all over the place but generally northward. The next 24 hours should give a more accurate prediction of time of arrival, strength, storm surge, wind directions and all that other fun stuff. E|right now, the sky is a bit overcast but all in all a pleasant day. You could not tell from the weather we are experiencing what is bearing down on us. I expect that by this afternoon, there will be a lot more people here doing something with their boats and that by tomorrow, panic will have really set in. My only real concern is the Genoa. I can't get it down. I think that the top-end furler has somehow become jammed and off the track that the top of the mast and won't allow the sail to come down. If I can get it down, I am going to have to find some way of wrapping the Genoa with line to secure it as much as possible, other wise it will rip loose and beat itself to death, plus adding to the windage. Windage, by the way, is the amount of surface area that the boat presents to the wind. The more windage, the great the effect of the wind on the boat and hence on the mooring. If the winds top out with gust of 90mph, the current prediction, the Genoa unraveled will add considerably to the windage and put unnecessary pressure ion the mooring.

Perhaps Irene will turn inland and, if she does, she will loose a lot of punch. Perhaps she will turn east and out to sea and miss us altogether leaving us with something like a nor'easter. No one really knows what will happen and everybody will just have to take what comes. AH, the fun of boat ownership!!!!!