Love Odyssey

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

What type of captain would leave his first mate to battle a hurricane alone with his best friend and 2.5 pound Yorkie?  Answer:  A deeply ambivalent one.  Here  I sit in a California Hotel while Helen has to rough it out in a concrete bathhouse that she thinks can withstand hurricane winds.  Actually, part of me envies her.  Isn’t that wierd!  I guess it’s a guy thing.  You know- men are from mars and women from venus.  There’s enough of a narcissist left in me that I would much rather be up all night BATTLING THE STORM than hearing about how to treat the traumas behind sexual abuse at this EMDR conference.  However, I would have had to have blown thousands (and my certification) to have skipped the conference altogether.  And Helen and my friend have done magnificantly well in preparing the boat without me.  But I can also hear the stress in her voice and I know that she doesn’t like all this uncertainty and danger dumped on top of her.  I guess I did the most rational thing for the family but I don’t like it.  Helen doesn’[t thrive on the mars thing like us guys.  She’s not a narcissist.  I wish I were there with them right now.

HANG IN THERE HELEN (AND SUSIE)  I LOVE YOU BOTH SO VERY MUCH!

Wistfully – Bryce 08/26/2011

It’s 6:00 and Irene has weakened to a category I storm–but don’t get too complacent–that means winds about 90 miles an hour.  So far we have had mainly rain and wind gusts up to 32 mph–not bad, so far!  We had our hurricane response meeting at 5:00 and there are teams of three individuals walking the docks every hour and adjusting lines.  There are about 20 brave souls doing this so they can cover over 200 slips.  All the boats have prepared for the storm and everyone has extra lines to the docks.  Our marina has not lost any boats in the past 20 years.  Let’s hope our luck continues!

Suzy, our little 2 1/2 pound Yorkie, has been very agitated all day.  I think she knows something is up and she is not happy!  Maybe she picks up mom’s anxiety, I don’t know.

I am getting off the boat at 8:00 and going to one of our bathhouses that is built to withstand 125 mph winds.  I will stay there all night until this storm clears out.  They expect the surge to get a couple of feet above the docks–it would not be easy at that point to leave the boat.  I will do everything I can think of to keep the boat safe.  This is our home for 3 days every week.

I plan to take the laptop with me to the bathhouse so I can continue to blog.  When the power goes out (and it will) I will just Tweet.  Hopefully we will have cell phone service.

Helen  at 6:15

It’s 3:30.  I have been trying to nap on the boat but I hear noises above in the cockpit.  We tied everything down this morning and removed anything that could blow away.  So what is making this noise every so often just as I drift off to sleep?

It has been raining on and off for the past two hours, but not hard rain–just the gentle, get your deck wet rain.  It is blowing a bit more too, but gusts are about 20-30 knots–nothing to worry about.  I have been onboard here last summer during a tropical storm and the boat did fine with 60-70 mile an hour gusts.

I see Jim, my neighbor and buddy, on his deck tying more lines on around his main sail.  He did not take it down; just wrapped it with lines.  Can’t ever be too careful with sails–they are what can get a sailboat in trouble if they blow out.

So I am just anxiously waiting for the “bad stuff” to hit.  Hard to relax when you anticipate a big hurricane like Irene.  Go away, Irene–you are not welcome here.

Helen   -8/26/11

It’s eleven thirty.  We have spent all morning tying down boats and dinghys.  We have been trying to make fast anything that could blow and be a missle.  I am tired and anxious.  The sky is gray but no wind or rain yet.  The storm is about 300 miles away and has been downgraded to category two–whopee!  We can expect winds of 100 miles an hour.  That will come after dark.  Later today we will get tropical force winds.

There are a lot of us boaters at the marina now.  It is a hub-bub of activity.  Everyone is helping each other–we are all in this stew together. I have a big pot of chilli going in the crockpot to feed all the “hands” that will be working through the night to adjust lines and keep boats safe.  Some of us will be “sleepding” up in the bath house where we can withstand the hurricane force winds.  I plan to bring pleanty of food to keep everyone’s strength up.

Helen  08/26/11