Love Odyssey

This is the last weekend at the coast before we head to Florida to celebrate our 30^th wedding anniversary.  We spent most of our time doing maintenance chores such as topping up our water tanks, ordering impellers for our generator, cleaning, taking down Christmas lights and tree, fixing the stove cover, etc. We are leaving the boat very early tomorrow morning to celebrate Christmas with our extended family at home in Cary.  Then Thursday afternoon we will be leaving for the long drive to Key West.  It is hard to believe that a week from today is Christmas Eve!

 Helen  12/17/11

Today we moved Bryce’s Oriental Counseling Center to New Bern.  For the past six years we have enjoyed the convenience of the office just two minutes from our boat.  Bryce generally saw clients on Sunday afternoons so his work did not interfere with our sailing.  We also spent many nights on the inflatable bed when it was too stormy to get on the boat or a tropical storm was brewing.  We will miss these things, but hopefully Bryce will get a more substantial practice in New Bern.  In all honesty, the majority of his clients came from outside of Oriental and many drove across the bridge from New Bern.  So it should be better for clients now and a bit less convenient for us.  Bryce will  be trying to fill up his Fridays in New Bern and our sailing will have to be on Saturday and Sunday–but I can adapt!

Helen   12/03/11

What a difference a week makes!  When I left our marina last Sunday afternoon the place was trashed.  There were contents of folks’ dock boxes strewn all over the lawn and in the water.  Dock boxes were broken and lying everywhere.  The docks were broken in some parts of the marina, with cleats pulled out of the wood and some of the wooden walkways were missing.  There was no power to the docks or the bath houses and water had been turned off.

We came back on Thursday night and even in the dark we could see that the docks and walkways had been repaired, garbage had been cleaned up, the broken branches and fallen trees had been hauled to the curb, and dock boxes had been replaced on their stands.  Friday morning the power came on and we were able to fill our tanks with water.  I could not wait to walk around the marina and see the damage.  Some docks are only temporarily repaired, just so no one falls in the holes and the boats can be secured.  But the place looked normal again.  Yesterday they hauled out the trash cans that had been stored in the bath houses and they put out the gas barbeques.  The pool still has green algea and I suspect they will just shut it down for the season.

A drive through the town of Oriental shows just how much flooding the buildings took during the first part of the storm.  Almost every house has piles of insulation, ductwork, carpet and wall board at the curb.  Then there are also the piles of downed trees and limbs that some people are burning and others are leaving for the town to collect along with the other hurricane debris.

This weekend shops are slowly opening, one by one.  Many of them have spent the last week cleaning up floors that got covered by mud and water.  The restaurants had to get re-inspected by the health department before they could serve food.  Everyone in town lost power for several days, so restaurants had to throw away all the food that they had in their refrigerators and freezers.  Unfortunately, the Bean, our favorite coffee shop and the heart of the town, will not be able to open for at least a month because they had four feet of water in their building during the height of the storm.  I and many other folks in town are having withdrawal symptoms–I want my favorite “bean freeze”!

Helen   09/03/11

I spent all morning and part of the afternoon putting Dragon Lady back together.  All the blue canvas had to be snapped on over the brightwork on the deck; the dodger had to be put back together; lines had to be coiled and placed back in the dock box and lazarette.  Jim helped me get the dinghy back up on the davits and the gangplank back on the finger pier.  All of this in blazing hot sunshine–needless to say I am sunburned!

The whole marina looks like a diaster area.  There are dock boxes strewn all over the laws; most are broken with their lids detached.  The contents of those dock boxes were also strewn everywhere.  We found oil filters, diesel cans, coolers, oil changers; etc.  Someone could have a great yard sale with all this stuff!  Then there were the pieces of dock and walkways broken.  This is one of the prettiest marinas I have ever seen and today it was trashed.

Owners of boats were all trying to get their vessels back together.  Some were luckier than others.  Many of the boats had the scars on their hulls from bashing against pilings and docks for hours.  Bow sprits were missing and anchors, usually stores at the bow, were bent or broken.  Sails were torn; sail covers were tattered.  I almost felt guilty that my boat had no battle scars.  I think Jim and I were pretty lucky to have made it through this so well.  Of course it was not luck that Jim worked his tail off for hours on end tending our two vessels as well as many others in the marina.  But we were lucky that our boats were situated in a part of the marina at the end of the new basin where we got wind on our sterns for the first part of the storm and wind on our bows for the second part.  Sailboats do okay in those conditions but do not fare as well when the force of this wind is on the port or starboard sides, which is what the majority of the boats in the marina got.  I thank God for his blessings.

We left for home at 2:30 and got to see what happened to the rest of the county of Pamlico.  We had to detour since there were power  lines in the middle of the road on Hwy 55.  Thank God I was following Jim with his GPS or I would never have figured out how to leave the county to get to New Bern.  We saw lots of trees down, many on the roofs of houses; yards that looked like lakes with houses in the middle; boats and boat trailers smashed like toys.  It was very sad because many of these houses were the dwellings of working people who probably did not have insurance.

On the drive home I did see convoys of power trucks heading to the coast, many from other states.  There were also lots of trucks that have cherry pickers to cut down trees and string wires.  There were also Red Cross vehicles and a bus from Samaritan’s Purse.  The people of our coast will need these services.

When I finally arrived home our yard was littered with tree limbs and pine cones.  I guess the Raleigh area got some wind too!  So for the past two hours I have been picking up and blowing the debris on the front yard, driveway and deck.  I am leaving the back yard with the bigger limbs for Bryce when he comes back from California!

Our daughter, Heather, is coming home tonight.  I have not seen her since February.  Needless to say, I am not up for cooking her dinner tonight.  We are going out to a restaurant–I want a glass of wine!

Helen    08/28/11    at 8 pm

It’s the day after the worst hurricane to hit Oriental.  The skies are blue, the sun is shining, and the air is dry and hot.  A perfect end of summer day.  There is destruction everywhere.  The storm did not leave us until mid-night last night.  We had over24 hours of strong winds and blinding rain.  In the marina there are boats with torn headsails and scars on their hulls.  As far as I know there were no sunken boats here, but we did see one in Oriental Harbor Marina.  There are all sorts of floatsom around on the grass here–coolers, bumpers, and lots of trash.  Dock boxes are thrown everywhere like kids blocks.  There are broken tree limbs, downed trees, crab pots, and small boats all along the side of the road and on the grass.  We have no power or cell phone service.  Yesterday I could only send text messages.

Our boat and dock box and slip are fine!  I am okay, just very tired from this ordeal.  I have my neighbor and good friend to thank for our boat’s safety.  Jim,  you are a GOD–I will love you forever!  Without your tending of our lines during the entire storm, we would surely have had damage.  thank you!

I am on generator now and running AC and coffee pot.  It seems like any other Sunday morning until I look outside my window.  I am going to put dinghy back on davits today and do some straightening up.  Then back to Cary if roads out of here are OK.  I will up-date more later.

Helen  08/28/11

It’s 9:30 and we are in the eye of the storm.  No wind and very little rain. Eerie calm.  The water level is very high and almost in the bath house.  We are hoping it will recede soon as the wind changes direction and shifts to the south.  A lot of dock boxes are floating by as well as all kinds of floatsom.  My friend Jim just spent the last half hour walking around and said our boat is OK but lines are very tight.  We hope the cleats and lines do not part.  I am hunkered down in the bath house.  Suzy has settled down now.  I saw that we had 91 mph gusts at about 7:30.  I guess the howling from the wind really freaked out Suzy.

I took lots of food with me last night when I left the boat, so Jim and I had breakfast of peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and fruit.  I thought there would be more people here to feed, but it has been just the two of us most of the night.

A few folks stayed on their boats and now that the water level is over 3 feet on the docks, they are stranded.  When the water recedes I guess they will get off.  I may not blog again because I have little battery power left now in my laptop.

Helen

The water level is now three feet over the docks.  It is light and we can see–it does not look good.  Many boats are rocking and rolling in their slips.  The storm surge is 7 feet so far.  Some people are now stranded inside their boats and cannot get off. That is not me.  I am safe in the bath house but just tired from little sleep last night.  Suzy is anxious and won’t settle down; she does not like the noises she is hearing outside.  The eye of the storm should be over us soon and then we may be able to go out and take a quick look around.  The guys are going to try to adjust lines then.

Helen  7 am 08/27/11

It is five am and we are getting lots of wind and rain now.  Hearing some very weird sounds but too dark to see.  At 4 the water was at the level of the docs but boats were alright.  I am trying to rest on a pool lounge chair with a blanket over me and Suzy in my arms. Can’t sleep but I am very tired.  I want this hurricane to be over.  So far water level has gone up about 5 1/2 feet.

It’s midnight–wind is about 55 mph.  Water level is almost up to docks.  I am tired but OK.  Lots of heavy rain now.  Storm is supposed to make landfall at Ocracoke.  This is a big storm!

Helen  08/26/11

It is almost 10 pm and the wind has picked up to 40 mph with gusts probably near 50.  Rain is pretty heavy at times.  I got off the boat at 7:00 with Suzy.  We are pretty cozy in the bath house.  I brought a blanket and lots of snack food.  We are having two hour watches on the dock.  So far most of the dock lines are fine.

Suzy is not letting mommy have a nap.  She hears weird noises and growls.  I guess she is trying to protect us.  I really miss Bryce but I am fine (for those folks worried about me).  I will try to blog about every 2 hours.

Helen