Preparing for Hurricane Sandy
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 26 Oct 2012 22:47
We have been preparing for this for the past two days now, and have the boat well protected with all the fenders we own (we rarely have all of them on even when we are against a dock as we have quite a few now), and lots of extra lines as back up for our main dock lines. Our first task was to move the boat to a dock further into the canal basin - again, we benefitted from perfect wind conditions and all was going great until we landed the boat and the steps we have on the side caught on the dock, and flipped off! Obviously, they don't float and are not magnetic - few things on boats are either, so after a useless attempt at retrieval with a hook on a line, John had to 'man up', don his dive kit and plunge himself into the freezing cold, filthy water to retrive them. Fortunately for John they were the first thing he touched when he hit the bottom!
The canvas bimini has been removed and the sprayhood will follow soon, it is being left to the last minute as it helps keep the doorway dry when it rains. The marina we are in is a very safe marina, as sheltered as it can be. The marina is based in an old canal basin just off the main Hudson River. This means that the surge of water, when it comes, will be diluted in force by the time it gets to us - we are also as far down the marina and away from the Hudson River as we can be bearing in mind our size and the depth available!
The coastguard has put the marina and surrounding area on 'Whiskey Alert' meaning we are to expect gale force winds within 72 hours. Once things start to get really bad here the State Park Police, will close and evacuate the park and we will be heading to a hotel until it is safe to return to the boat. In some ways this is quite good as it means you can't stay so long that it becomes impossible and too dangerous to get out, or too dangerous to stay either. Our hotel will be booked tomorrow in case we need it.
The ironic thing is that all the time we have been preparing for the storm, the weather has been really calm, hardly any wind at all. The scary thing is that we don't really know what to expect, however we will just have to batten down the hatches, keep looking at the forecasts, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
On a lighter note, the papers over here are dubbing the storm either the 'Halloween Hurricane' or 'Frankenstorm'!!!
Depending on how the situation plays out, we will try and keep in touch either by phone or email but we may loose contact for a while. I will try and keep the blog updated as far as possible.