Chesapeake and Ernesto

[John F.]

Rawleigh, Chris, John D., Doug, Crae, and anybody else-

Read on another site (THT) that tides are 4' higher than normal down on the northern neck. I just saw a pic. in TF where the tide was up to the pier (I think by VA Beach), and a local guy wrote that on the western shore near Annapolis tides were way up. Its just been a slightly higher than normal high tide all day where I am on Kent Island.

Just thought I'd let the Bay contingent know if they want/can go check lines.

John F.

[STeveZ]

I doubled up my lines around 7 PM (low tide) and the water was up. It was hummin' on the Bush River!

[Rawleigh]

I didn't think it would be too bad. WRONG!! It was almost as bad as Isabell!! I got caught short because I thought I could leave the boat in the boathouse. MISTAKE!! I went down to check on the tide at midnight Thursday. It was just below the stringer of the dock. I went back at 5 am for high tide. The tide came up 3 inches over the dock. I napped in the v berth until 8am. The tide was at the same spot. I had about 3 feet between the bridge windshield and the rafters. I went to work and came ack at noon to check the low tide. I was afraid the tide might not go down and was worried that high tide at 6pm might rachet up on top of that. MISTAKE!! Much to my horror the surge was 12" over the dock at low tide! I only have another foot before i couldn't get out of the boathouse door. I couldn't call anyone for help because I had to drive over downed power lines to get there and the emergency people were blocking the road (I knew them and told them that I HAD to get to my boat). I rigged out my three bow hurricane lines that allow me to tie the boat between the L of the dock and shore. They have spliced thimbles that shackle to eye bolts through three 18" pilings at the end of the dock. They are protected with sewn on firehose chafe gear and have spliced eyes that drop over the bow cleat. I hung all three eyes on the same piling. I then rushed back inside and rigged two 150' 5/8" stern lines which I carefully coiled so that I could handle them without getting a birdsnest. I then opened the doors, cast off the lines and backed out into s 45 mph gale with gusts on top of that! Fortunately the wind was blowing from the NE into the dock. I laid her alongside and after several attempts and much running back and forth from the controls I got all three bow lines on board. She swung violently in the gusts, weathervaning from the end of the dock, and heeling over when each gust would hit! I finally figure out that I couldn't get her alongside again and that i would have to exit over the bow. I set the coiled stern lines on the bow, pulled her up to the dock between gusts and jumped off. I then worked the lines around the dock to shore and waded them out to my "hurricane dock" which is a finger pier built out from the shore. It was a lot of work and I got a couple pretty bad rope burns for my trouble, but she rode it out very easily at the mooring! Next time I won't wait to put her outside!! It was almost a disaster!!! A lot of boats wound up in the ceilings of boathouses around here!! All the two year old docks on the river are gone again, and a lot of boats are damaged or sunk. I have a nice picture of a 28 Bertram sitting high and dry on a point across the river from me!! MORAL TO THE STORY: DON'T PROCRASTINATE!! Even if it is supposed to be small it can kick your butt!! It is hard not to get complacient after a number of misses by storms. We had winds over 70 MPH!! a number of marinas had the piers wiped out. I spent all day with a chainsaw, and my power just went out again as I am typing this. I haven't heard from Chris or Chiles. Mikey is OK and Dreamsickle only suffered a demolished work enclosure. Rawleigh, the tired but safe!!

[Alex]

Rawleigh,

Me and Ernersto had a few anxious moments ourselves. I returned from a two-week business trip after midnight Thursday. Less than 9 hours later I said "gotta go check the boat" to my PMS-afflicted wife. Quite a homecoming. Is it cold in here?

Two hours of water skiing down 95 and Route 3, I'm five miles from securing my baby when a tree across 202 blocks my path. I look at it for a few mintues to see how it handles the gusts. It doesn't move. Pop the clutch and scoot under the tree with 6 inches to spare. Not one of my smarter moves, but I was desparate.

When I got to the boat at noon Friday, it was getting beat up against the dock that was 2 feet under water. I had use a broom to locate the many pieces of missing decking and throw a leg over the gunnel. I needed another line to keep pull the boat away from the dock, but only had one spindly piling at the bow -- my only option was the anchor line tied to the stern and tied to a tree on shore.

After many trips between the deck in 65 mph gusts and the anchor locker to free the anchor line, I tie off on the stern cleat and broom click my way back to shore and jump in the water to find a tree upwind (the only way to access the trees in this particular terrain). At one point, when the anchor line was tangling around my shoulder, waves hitting me in the chin, and my feet getting snagged in submerged tree branches I reflected on the benefits of the buddy system they tried to teach me in elementary school.

It worked, but I'm still an idiot. I realize this pales in comparison to what so many of you guys have gone through recently. I saw the carnage in New Orleans and Biloxi months afterwards and still can't adequately describe it to folks.

Rawleigh and Chris, I had every intention of calling to offer help, but it was dark before I finished helping my neighbors with various dilemmas. By that point, you just toss and turn in bed until sunup and assess the damage.

Chris, let us know that you made it through okay.

Alex

[Rawleigh]

Glad you made out OK Alex. I like the broomstick trick!! I will have to call Chris.

[Doug Crowther]

I flew to Mass and hung out with Thuddd and Kathi all weekend. Apparently some of my friends had fun with my boats in my absence- but everything is fine upon my return. Timmy is a hell of a host. I knew I was in trouble when we stopped @ the booze store on the way back from the airport and bought $250 worth for immediate consumption.

[In Memory Walter K]

Alex- I hope your wife hasn't read your post or she'll never let you go to the boat alone ever again. Walter

[thuddddddd]

Doug, any time.
thanks for the gift from the portsmouth police, wonderful surprise. Danny and Minna were impressed with your almost keeping up at the resturant.
I think I'll have to keep you in mind as a team member for the moving truck grand prix, after your reported time to Maryland.

[Chiles]

Guys,
Sorry to hear about the tremendous efforts that you had to go thru to protect your boats.

I had called Norview Marina on Wednesday and inquired about getting my boat pulled off of the second story outside rack and put inside the protected boatell. The dockmaster said they would have to charge me the standard $50.00 blocking fee, but they could accomodate my request. After reading your stories, I think it is the best $50.00 I have spent on that boat.

Norview had quite a few boats on the A dock banged up, and remnants of other docks were all over the parking lot, but no boats lost. The water never made it inside the boatell, so they assured me that my boat came thru fine.

[Alex]

Chiles, glad to hear you made it through unscathed.

Walter, in retrospect, I may have been a bit rash. Just trying to paint a picture. Plus, the way I drone on about the boat and the message board, my wife's not likely to lurk in the sandbox. However, if she stops talking to me, I'll check the cookies on her laptop before formulating an apology.

[JohnD]

I had planned to go to NY camping for the weekend with the family, but decided Wednesday to cancel but keep my day-off on Friday to button down the hatches.

Boy am I glad I did. In Baltimore the wind seemed to heavist from the north-east. Good for me since I'm on the north side of a creek which runs east-west. Not to say we didn't get some heavy winds, we did. I pulled the new/partially completed enclosure off Lady D and put it in the cabin. threw on a couple of extra lines and allowed some slack for the tidal surge. The real chore in storm proofing the nifty steel-framed an vinyl covered garage the B20 was tucked into. I worked for 3-4hrs on Friday trying to get the sides tied down with the wind howling and them flapping. It's one of those from "Shelter-it" I picked up on-sale at BJ's, this week when the weather clears up I'm going to re-work my temp fixes.

There was some damage to a private pier just on the north side of the Stony Creek bridge. Looks like it broke up one section of it. Also, on Friday, the marina just on the sout side of that bride was taking a 4ft chop!!! Mind you that stony creek off the Patapsco River (just before the key bridge on the south side) and isn't more than 1/4 mile wide only about 10-12ft deep.

No doubt people up my way just didn't take the storm seriously.

[Doug Crowther]

Timmy,
Sorry about the ticket I got with your F250. To be honest I was of diminished capacity when Kathi saw that on the windsheild and put it somewhere in the cab (ie-I instantly forgot about it). Consider it a small payback for those two bottles of saki you made me drink with you. Aside from parking nazi's @ 7pm on a Saturday night, Portsmouth, Nh. is a cool little town. Thanks for sharing, lets do it again soon.

P.S.
If you think I made good time driving a rental truck back to Md, you should have seen your powerstroke diesel 4x4 belching smoke like an old detroit as I ran it up I95 to Maine. That thing is cool ! LOL

Doug

[thuddddddd]

Doug, Anytime, as long as you don't bring you know who. As far as my little gift, well I figured it small payback, for you picking up the slightly inflated tab. Our waitress call be today, she was in awe of how much you consumed.
Why should you be expected to drive the truck any different than I would?? BTW when do I get to use the little german toy??? And can you put a fresh set of skins on before I get it?

[Doug Crowther]

Line from Caddy Shack.
Tim,
No german toy anymore but you are welcome to play with the Land Rover D90. You wanna do some goose hunting this fall here in Md ? Requires full choke barrels and steel shot . If you want I can start lining something up....

[thuddddddd]

Yea, I'm in. I'll get a gun from the proff, he won't be using them, as he's still to stove up to be of much use for anything(heck that was even pre-op.)
Or it will be a good excuse to buy another gun that I don't need.

I'm thinking instead of the rover, maybe you could find a slightly scuffed american v-twin pig for me to thrash.