Hurricane

 9/13- Okay folks we have hit another stumbling block on our way south. Alayne's dad passed away last night. She will be heading to California for a week so I will sit here with the boat until she gets back.

    Right now we moved the boat over in front of the yacht club as it is a little more protected. We still have this hurricane to deal with. It looks like it will hit us here around Friday night and last most of Saturday. Let's hope for the best. The yacht club folks have been the best. They are treating us like family or at least another member. I may even get to watch a football game in the sailors lounge. I may have to get a blue sports coat??!!!

    Let's talk hurricane. I have spent most of the last several days prepping the boat for hurricane Lee. One of the first things we did was decide early that this was where we wanted toride out the storm. If you get in early you avoid the frantic running around to marinas that are already full and plus they have their own customers to deal with. We picked here because we could get up the river a ways and heading further south just put us closer to the predicted path. 

    We did a bit of shuffling as some folks thought we would be better off on the Maine side of the river but when we got there the harbor master told us to go back over to the yacht club. So that's where we sit.

    Normally you should strip off any kind of windage. I didn't take the head sails down but I wrapped them numerous times and then tied off the lines with knots. I lashed the main down as well as the anchors. Any line that ended on a cleat was knotted as opposed to just cleated. I cleared anything off the deck that could be swept away. The boat began to resemble a spider web with lines going all over the place. Hopefully it will be enough.

   

9/16- Well we are still floating and attached to the mooring. We still have today together through but last night was not too bad. The winds were not more than 25 knots and the boat settled into the current and didn't move very much at all. I actually probably slept a couple of hours. As planned I got the boat all ready and then went ashore. The yacht club has a nice facility and it was out of the wind. The wind was quite strong today but all forecasts call for decreasing winds tonight. I had a nice day walking into Portsmouth and having a nice long conversation with Russ the dock hand. He is an ex-coastie who does this for extra cash.  The people here have been extraordinarily friendly. I will head back out to the boat soon and spend the night.

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