Chesapeake Bay Irene preparations...

[SCORPIO]

Well this has been a hell of a weekend for me. I have my boat in Lewes DE, on a canal and had to ride out the storm in my slip since the only boatyard in town refuses to pull boats for hurricanes. The thinking is his yard is prone to surge and tidal flooding and boats could be floated off the stands. Also we are relatively exposed to the bay/ocean so blow overs are also a concern. I doubled all my lines and left a huge amount of scope, moved lines as high on the pilings as possible and hung ten fenders in various wast to buffer me from the dock. On Fri. when I was doing my prep, they were calling for 6-8' of storm surge and we only have about 6' of pilings above mean high water. A local charter captain was "extending" his pilings with long boards spiked and lashed to the pilings. A few of us looked at that and said why not, so I used 8' treated 2x4s spiked and lashed to the pilings to extend them about 5' higher. The thinking was to keep the boat between the piling if they were overtopped and allow the boat to safely come down in her slip when the water retreated. I dropped all my canvas, took off all valuables and duct taped all my hatches, vents etc and installed my cockpit cover. I took out a few snaps from the boat and screwd the cover directly to the boat in a few trouble spots with large washers.
I think we got lucky that the storm weakened and sped up as our surge was only about 3 feet or so. I got a call from a good friend last night at about 10:30 and he told me the boat was doing fine, then today another friend sent me a pic of my boat still safe in her slip after the storm passed.
I don't know how you guys in Fla. etc deal with this threat on a regular basis. I feel like I've aged a month in the last two days.
Lets hope this is the only storm to head our way this year.

 

[SeaNile]

Just spoke to my friend who is parked right next to me, on my left side. Turns out both boats made it through with zero issues. Glad I removed all of the canvas and supports but it seems that was a bit of over kill. Glad my bumpers, on both left and right sides, were not needed.

 

[douglee25]

I made it through with my boat on land.

I also tied up my slip neighbor's boat in the center of our two slips. He survived as well.

Doug

 

[skibum]

I went to the marina Sunday afternoon around 5PM. There were blue skies, no wind, and best of all, no damage to the marina or any of the boats.

I was actually suprised to see that the "flooding" from Irene on the road that we have to take through the state park to the marina seemed to be less than that of a typical afternoon thunderstorm. Not sure where all of that water went, but it sure cleared out fast... :smt038