Storm Preparations

As reported in the last entry of the blog, we arrived in New Bern on Wednesday. We had planned to stay here a few days, since our boat insurance doesn't want us to sail south of Cape Hatteras until November 1^st – hurricane issues. Well it seems that a hurricane will keep us here that long at least. As all of you on the East Coast already know, Hurricane Sandy is working up our way. But it only began raining this morning (Saturday), so we've had a chance to check out New Bern. It turns out to be a really nice big town with lots of friendly people. And they all love dogs including Maddie.

Since the hurricane was headed this way, we decided to get a slip at one of the local marinas for some added protection. It's located on the Trent River just behind a hotel, thus getting some extra protection from north winds. We can get in to the hotel to use their facilities which include morning Starbuck's coffee and a newspaper for free in addition to showers, laundry and health club. We've tied extra lines on the boat, put up all our enclosure panels and moved the dinghy over to a dinghy dock. I think we'll be fine. It's interesting to wander around the docks and hear all the different theories on storm preparation. Some are taking sails down and all canvas off the boat, while others are doing nothing special. Their thinking is that it won't be any worse than it is during local storms that develop along the Neuse River during the spring. Of course there are variations of preparation that run the whole gamut between these two approaches.

For the record, the National Weather Service is predicting winds in the low 30s through tomorrow night before they begin to taper off a little. But part of our dilemma is that a front will push the storm around and remain here providing strong winds through Wednesday. So we are likely to remain here till Thursday.

Although today will be somewhat rainy and windy, we'll be enjoying a gathering of friends at the home of George and Carol whom we met in Marathon a couple of years ago. We have yet to meet up with Sandra's friend Priscilla who is supposed to come tomorrow. That meeting is likely to get postponed a couple of days, since Sandy will be at her height here at that time. Then another of our Marathon friends who lives in the area has contacted us about getting together before we leave. We're not sure that will work, but we're hopeful.

So all in all, this stop in New Bern will work out pretty well, just a little wetter than hoped for. Another entry will update all on how the predictions match up with the reality. Till then, Carpe Diem

Captain Bob