After a lot of back and forth we decided to get a slip at Manhasset Bay Marina for a week. There are no good choices. We thought about a mooring ball, but in storm conditions the short scope of the mooring ball system generates huge shock loads on your cleats and snubbers. Also, you can't see the gear that is under water to see how it has been maintained--and then what happens when the ball and pendant goes under with high tide and a surge? You are also a target for any upwind boat that breaks free (this is true with almost any choice).
We inquired about getting hauled out, but the yard was not going to haul out boats for this storm. They later changed their minds and did continuous haulouts for 3 1/2 days. I did not press them on it because I have mixed feelings about haulouts for hurricanes where boats can get blown over on top of each other like dominoes. I also observed the yard was not chaining the jack stands together. After seeing the havoc Ike left in Texas, we were first hand witnesses to what happens to boats on the hard when the water gets up to their level. Not pretty.
My first choice would be floating docks, but only if designed by the same firm that did the docks at Waterford Harbor in Kemah, Texas. That's the only marina dock system I've seen that is designed properly to withstand storms with lots of surge. When I become Marina Czar I will mandate that this design be followed by all marinas. Only marina owners that are "friendly" to me will qualify to be grandfathered in with their sub par standards.
We spent a couple and a half days of securing the boat, dealing with fenders, stripping her of her canvas, solar panels, sails, and in general reducing her windage, removing and capping the dorades, taping the covers on the exterior instruments, taping around the hinges on the hatches (which tend to leak when the canvas covers are off), taping the main hatch boards together etc. With this done and front end of Irene only hours away, the time had come to bid our fair but robust lady adieu. It wasn't easy to turn our back on her, but we made the decision to prepare her well then leave if the winds were forecast to be hurricane force.
Our destination was the gym at the local high school. We were fortunate to get a break from the rain as we made our way up the long hill. The temperature was nice, but the humidity was 100%.
I'm about to offer the owner of this van a trade--everything in my bags, plus all the money in my wallet for his rusty old van. If he were to refuse, I would throw in a sailboat along with the 4 days we had left at the marina. Alas, he was nowhere to be found.
Let's go Vikings!! Lisa, the refugee. Sounds like a Tom Petty song.
We were surprised to see the Red Cross was coordinating this event. I assumed we would be talking to the principal, a nurse and maybe a librarian who would make us all hush. Then we saw all these army type cots. The Red Cross folks really did shine. We were very impressed. They worked hard all through the night and were Texas nice--though not from Texas.
They took my basketball away and made me sit in the corner and read a book. Why do old people hold the book so far away even when they wear glasses? Answer: need an armrest.
They took my basketball away and made me sit in the corner and read a book. Why do old people hold the book so far away even when they wear glasses? Answer: need an armrest.
They called the gym a dormitory and lights were supposed to be out by 10 pm. So, with the lights out, you see the reflection of several hundred iPods bouncing off the ceiling, little boys running around with flashlights, stomping on roaches that dared to come out at night, large families with young kids competing to see who could cry the loudest and most often--with their parents either urging them on, or just doing the ignore them thing that only the parents can do. Where's the librarian when you need her?
Then there was the lady who for many years has never missed a meal, or dessert, or snack. It must have been hot because she insisted on sleeping on her back with her arms above her head. Since her dress was sleeveless, it was obvious to all that her razor budget got transferred to the food budget. The scissor budget as well, because she was waaay into scissor territory. The shear budget as w---oh, never mind. OK, all this could describe me, but I don't go sleeveless and I try to keep my pits closed in public. She was on the cot next to Lisa. Lisa spent most of the night in the cafeteria or roaming the halls.
Actually, it was amazing how well things went with so many people in such close quarters. And if you were a parent with the ability to tune out the constant screaming of some youngsters, it would have been somewhat amusing. We lost power at 2 am, but the maintenance guy and the Red Cross soon had a generator running so they could keep the fans going.
When we left the boat, we thought she had a decent chance to survive if the surge didn't exceed what was forecast on the weather sites we study. After arriving at the gym, the locals put the angst in us with "assurances" that the surge is always bad in Manhasset Bay. We had not heard that before and had deduced the opposite. Needless to say, I spent most of the night going through the different possibilities. What to do if the boat gets totaled. And worst case scenario, what to do if she's badly damaged but not totaled (very likely because she is built like a tank and not cheap enough for the insurance company to flippantly write off).
Throughout the night we were getting conflicting reports about the storm. As it turned out, Irene hit us as a tropical storm and not a hurricane. As far as I know, the mooring fields and the marinas all survived just fine. But we didn't know any of this until we got back to the boat.
These are MREs (meals ready to eat).
Inside these bags are 2 small cardboard boxes and another plastic bag. One box contains the meat--like a hamburger or chicken dumplings. The other contains rice or similar. Then there is a packet of crackers with jam and a cookie or similar. They even have a packet of red dye that is raspberry flavoring you put in water. It will stain a cafeteria table for sure. We didn't open ours.
The last bag is the magic. It's hydrogen something. You put a little water in it to activate the bomb, stick your meal in it, wait 5 or 10 minutes and you have a hot meal.
You can see smoke coming out of the top of the box.
Then there was the lady who for many years has never missed a meal, or dessert, or snack. It must have been hot because she insisted on sleeping on her back with her arms above her head. Since her dress was sleeveless, it was obvious to all that her razor budget got transferred to the food budget. The scissor budget as well, because she was waaay into scissor territory. The shear budget as w---oh, never mind. OK, all this could describe me, but I don't go sleeveless and I try to keep my pits closed in public. She was on the cot next to Lisa. Lisa spent most of the night in the cafeteria or roaming the halls.
Actually, it was amazing how well things went with so many people in such close quarters. And if you were a parent with the ability to tune out the constant screaming of some youngsters, it would have been somewhat amusing. We lost power at 2 am, but the maintenance guy and the Red Cross soon had a generator running so they could keep the fans going.
When we left the boat, we thought she had a decent chance to survive if the surge didn't exceed what was forecast on the weather sites we study. After arriving at the gym, the locals put the angst in us with "assurances" that the surge is always bad in Manhasset Bay. We had not heard that before and had deduced the opposite. Needless to say, I spent most of the night going through the different possibilities. What to do if the boat gets totaled. And worst case scenario, what to do if she's badly damaged but not totaled (very likely because she is built like a tank and not cheap enough for the insurance company to flippantly write off).
Throughout the night we were getting conflicting reports about the storm. As it turned out, Irene hit us as a tropical storm and not a hurricane. As far as I know, the mooring fields and the marinas all survived just fine. But we didn't know any of this until we got back to the boat.
These are MREs (meals ready to eat).
Inside these bags are 2 small cardboard boxes and another plastic bag. One box contains the meat--like a hamburger or chicken dumplings. The other contains rice or similar. Then there is a packet of crackers with jam and a cookie or similar. They even have a packet of red dye that is raspberry flavoring you put in water. It will stain a cafeteria table for sure. We didn't open ours.
The last bag is the magic. It's hydrogen something. You put a little water in it to activate the bomb, stick your meal in it, wait 5 or 10 minutes and you have a hot meal.
You can see smoke coming out of the top of the box.
Lisa made me taste one of the meals. She said I needed to get into the spirit of things. I just wanted my Greens Plus bar and peanut butter crackers.
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