1300 Saturday – Oyster Bay – we have completed hurricane preparations.
June Jones has reflaked the secondary anchor rode, so it is ready to deploy. Notice the figure eight lay to minimize the risk of fouling.
The “turtle” (blue bag) is secured aft of the house and adjacent to the big electric winch. One end of the rode is lead to the bow,
and then through the fairlead ahead of the anchor rollers. The turtle to starboard is for the third anchor.
Two rope rodes and two snubber lines for the anchor chain are now pre-run so we don’t have to do any catwalking to the fairlead during the coming festivities.
The second anchor, a Fortress 125, is ready to go. We will set it once we are get a better feel for likely wind direction.
The flying bridge has been stripped.
And the instruments double sealed. This is the first layer.
The neat work above and below, a second layer of Gorilla tape, is the work of Michael Jones.
There have been a few fishing boats pass by, on their way to the inner harbor.
The Nassau County marine police have visited.
And we have but one neighbor. These folks just arrived with roller furled headsails still in place and the dinghy trailing astern. We wish them well.
The projected track has the eye passing over us Sunday morning (blue line left side of image), a potentially wonderful photo opportunity.
A word to our friends in Ireland, the UK, and Western Europe. The 500mb data looks favorable for a tropical to extratropical transition for Irene (for more on this see page 471 in our Mariner’s Weather Handbook). If this occurs, a week or so from now there is going to be a large storm system in the old world. For anyone at sea, or in exposed harbors, keep a sharp eye out.
If the Internet stays up we’ll post periodic updates.
Posted by Steve Dashew (August 27, 2011)
August 27th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
We are thinking of you!
August 27th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Good luck and God Bless. Hope the weather is not as severe as expected.
August 27th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Thanks Dan:
Right now the forecast is 65 knots – not a big deal where we are. Flooding seems to be the worst prospect and this should not affect us.
August 27th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Bummer about Oyster Bay being right in the line of fire. Spent a few years going to school right aroung the corner, and remember it as both a beautiful spot and a very secure one.
Curious – will you tuck the booms inboard to minimize windage, or are you keeping them out to help keep you from sailing around?
Best of luck to you and your neighbors; hopefully that track line will shift some.
-Chris
August 27th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Hi Chris:
Booms are out for windage aft to hold us steady, which so far they are doing. If the eye does come over us it will be mid day and a great photo opportunity!
August 27th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Hope it is all OK for you,
We ran before a cyclone in the Indian Ocean years ago, it is hard to describe the noise of that much wind isn’t it?
Your preparations are perfect, (no surprise there). Hope you don’t need to spend too long untangling anchor rides afterwards, and make sure you have plenty of tonic for your G&Ts. We are keeping tuned from here in Australia.
Yacht Barnestormer.
August 27th, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Howdy Gary:
We are sitting on one big anchor, a 110kg (250 pound) ROCNA. It is a hurricane anchor in size, which is also our lunch hook. There are two other anchors ready to go if required.
September 17th, 2011 at 11:28 pm
Can you please describe your initial plan for deploying the two Fortress anchors? What ultimately ended up happening?
Thank you.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:18 am
Hi Blaine:
In years past (many years ago!) we would power up on the primary rode (chain) if adding an anchor. But if we knew a blow was coming, we’d set the extra anchors with the dinghy ahead of time. In the case of Irene, the extra anchors were there in case something unexpected occurred. Otherwise, we were assuming the single large Rocna was sufficient for something in the range of 80/100 knots, and possibly more, in the bottom we had under us.