Hurricane Irene
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 1:15 am
Friends - we just rode out Hurricane Irene here in North Carolina, and I hear our neighbors to the north have suffered a lot of damage too. Here is my report:
August 26th through 28th
Hurricane Irene
Matthews Point Marina
I drove down to the marina near Morehead City where I keep my boat Thursday night. Friday morning I took the boat out in the creek and anchored it. A group of us then worked through the afternoon securing the marina and checking all the boats at anchor for properly set anchors and chafing gear.
Late Friday night I drove to Kinston and camped out in my truck for the duration. The storm came ashore about 8:00 Saturday morning, and the eye passed about 5 miles to the east of the marina around 10:00 am. By 2:00 in the afternoon, the winds in Kinston had dropped off to about 40 knots, so I drove down highway 70 to the marina. There were many power lines and trees down but I managed to get in to the marina about 4:00. The entire county was out of power, but I holed up in the marina clubhouse for the night, catching water coming off the roof to mix with Bacardi Gold. Strong west winds blew until around midnight.
In the morning we found that something large (my guess is a tree) had come down the creek and smashed through the dock, leaving it in a shambles. I contacted the marina owner in Greenville and he said that due to trees down he was having a hard time getting through, but he was on his way. I also called a friend who had weathered the storm on his boat, anchored not far from mine, and he said he was fine and all the boats in sight were ok. He said that the water came up nine feet on the east wind and then dropped twelve feet as the wind backed around to the west. He estimated sustained winds of 70-80 knots with 100 knot gusts at the height of the storm. We got a skiff in the water and made a tour of both arms of the creek, and all but one of the 100 boats from the marina had ridden the storm in good shape. The one exception was a small catboat that had drug up in the sawgrass and will be an easy salvage.
The marina was in worse shape with the smashed docks and water four feet deep in the bath house and tool shed. A large tree came down just missing the clubhouse, and an industrial size ice cooler vanished without a trace. We worked all day Sunday ferrying people out to their boats to check them over, cleaning up debris around the grounds and removing the commodes and linoleum from the bath houses so the sheetrock and flooring could be replaced. The marina owner got a contract crew out immediately to start dock repairs, but the estimate is that it will be three weeks before the marina is ready to take boats again. For the time being, we will leave the boats at anchor in the creek. A number of boat owners came down Sunday and pitched in to help clean up the marina.
I left the marina about 4:00 Sunday afternoon to drive home and found stoplights out and power lines down almost to Smithfield, which is about 70 miles inland.
And here is a report from a friend in a marina across the river from mine:
Paul,
You did better than Suzie and I did at BlackBeard Sailing Club (about 10
miles from Matthews Point for the benefit of other readers). Upper Broad
Creek was a massacre with thirteen boats aground and at least two missing
including Suzie's. Stella Maris ended up on shore next to a garage. Hull
intact but damage to the starboard rub rail and toe rail, and mast is
broken. Shrouds appeared to have hung up on the house and when the water
receded the mast finally buckled. Picture attached will mean something to
you if not others since our experience offshore. Used same approach and
chafe gear as earlier storms, but obvious had problems. Person aboard a
houseboat in adjacent creek reported a waterspout, but who the heck knows.
Thank goodness Irene was a Cat 1 and not a 3 when it arrived. Also, by luck
my insurance carrier (Nationwide) really has an adjuster who knows boats and
salvage. I was the only one of 13 who talked to anyone who understood big
boats, and he surveyed the boat today and should be recovered and
transported Wednesday or Thursday this week. Please pass the word at
Matthews Point to be on the lookout for Suzie's boat as the wind would have
taken it that way if it made the river as we think it did. We searched as
far as marker 19 on both sides of the Neuse. It is a Capri 26 (made by
Catalina) with a white hull and Carolina blue stripe along the rail and
sugar scoop stern. All sails are stripped. The registration is NC 2142
CU. You can email or call Suzie or me and we'll provide LARGE NICE bottle
of spirits of your choice as suitable reward.
Glad all is okay with you, and glad no one we know of was hurt or worse.
Harrison
August 26th through 28th
Hurricane Irene
Matthews Point Marina
I drove down to the marina near Morehead City where I keep my boat Thursday night. Friday morning I took the boat out in the creek and anchored it. A group of us then worked through the afternoon securing the marina and checking all the boats at anchor for properly set anchors and chafing gear.
Late Friday night I drove to Kinston and camped out in my truck for the duration. The storm came ashore about 8:00 Saturday morning, and the eye passed about 5 miles to the east of the marina around 10:00 am. By 2:00 in the afternoon, the winds in Kinston had dropped off to about 40 knots, so I drove down highway 70 to the marina. There were many power lines and trees down but I managed to get in to the marina about 4:00. The entire county was out of power, but I holed up in the marina clubhouse for the night, catching water coming off the roof to mix with Bacardi Gold. Strong west winds blew until around midnight.
In the morning we found that something large (my guess is a tree) had come down the creek and smashed through the dock, leaving it in a shambles. I contacted the marina owner in Greenville and he said that due to trees down he was having a hard time getting through, but he was on his way. I also called a friend who had weathered the storm on his boat, anchored not far from mine, and he said he was fine and all the boats in sight were ok. He said that the water came up nine feet on the east wind and then dropped twelve feet as the wind backed around to the west. He estimated sustained winds of 70-80 knots with 100 knot gusts at the height of the storm. We got a skiff in the water and made a tour of both arms of the creek, and all but one of the 100 boats from the marina had ridden the storm in good shape. The one exception was a small catboat that had drug up in the sawgrass and will be an easy salvage.
The marina was in worse shape with the smashed docks and water four feet deep in the bath house and tool shed. A large tree came down just missing the clubhouse, and an industrial size ice cooler vanished without a trace. We worked all day Sunday ferrying people out to their boats to check them over, cleaning up debris around the grounds and removing the commodes and linoleum from the bath houses so the sheetrock and flooring could be replaced. The marina owner got a contract crew out immediately to start dock repairs, but the estimate is that it will be three weeks before the marina is ready to take boats again. For the time being, we will leave the boats at anchor in the creek. A number of boat owners came down Sunday and pitched in to help clean up the marina.
I left the marina about 4:00 Sunday afternoon to drive home and found stoplights out and power lines down almost to Smithfield, which is about 70 miles inland.
And here is a report from a friend in a marina across the river from mine:
Paul,
You did better than Suzie and I did at BlackBeard Sailing Club (about 10
miles from Matthews Point for the benefit of other readers). Upper Broad
Creek was a massacre with thirteen boats aground and at least two missing
including Suzie's. Stella Maris ended up on shore next to a garage. Hull
intact but damage to the starboard rub rail and toe rail, and mast is
broken. Shrouds appeared to have hung up on the house and when the water
receded the mast finally buckled. Picture attached will mean something to
you if not others since our experience offshore. Used same approach and
chafe gear as earlier storms, but obvious had problems. Person aboard a
houseboat in adjacent creek reported a waterspout, but who the heck knows.
Thank goodness Irene was a Cat 1 and not a 3 when it arrived. Also, by luck
my insurance carrier (Nationwide) really has an adjuster who knows boats and
salvage. I was the only one of 13 who talked to anyone who understood big
boats, and he surveyed the boat today and should be recovered and
transported Wednesday or Thursday this week. Please pass the word at
Matthews Point to be on the lookout for Suzie's boat as the wind would have
taken it that way if it made the river as we think it did. We searched as
far as marker 19 on both sides of the Neuse. It is a Capri 26 (made by
Catalina) with a white hull and Carolina blue stripe along the rail and
sugar scoop stern. All sails are stripped. The registration is NC 2142
CU. You can email or call Suzie or me and we'll provide LARGE NICE bottle
of spirits of your choice as suitable reward.
Glad all is okay with you, and glad no one we know of was hurt or worse.
Harrison
