Woke up around 0600 to a beautiful red sky, but you know the saying “Red sky in the morning Sailors/Shepherds warning” depending whether you are a land lubber or a sailor. I was going to take some piccies, but within a few minutes, it had gone and we were left with a grey sky, misty fog, high humidity and no wind, with pressure at 1013mb.

 

We did a few maintenance jobs, cleaned the raw water strainers on the freezer, engine and generator and then went ashore for the most fabulous lunch at Ship n Shore. We watched in the marina as boaters prepared their lines and fenders, taking up the few safe places remaining, and set off in the tender getting back around 1500ET as the rain started. Now at 1600ET it has really started raining, the visibility is closing down, we can hear the thunder, the wind is getting up and the pressure is dropping.

 

Things didn’t seem too bad for a while, now it’s just gone midnight and I have been on deck to stop a few things pinging and rattling, the wind is over 30kts, the pressure is still up at 1003mb and Irene is not supposed to arrive until 1400ET, some 14 hours away from New York, which I can confirm on my GRIB files. The pressure in the eye has been measured as low as 950mb, so we have along way to go and it could get bumpy – I have now set the Wind Alarm to 50kts to stop it going off.

 

Twitter Update from CCN Hurricane Watch

@cnnbrk Authorities close Port of New York and Port for Long Island Sound late Saturday as  #Irene closes in.

@cnnbrk Ocean City, Maryland, received 8 inches of rainfall by early Sunday and was experiencing minor flooding.  #Irene

@cnnbrk Officials in Maryland warn of potential failure of St. Mary's Lake Dam due to heavy rains from  #Hurricane  #Irene

 

Sat here in my life jacket and just checked the track and it is at 37N about 5 degrees south of us, so around 300 miles travelling NNE at 16 mph, so around 1800ET before it comes up the river after us