Aboard Lady

Lady safe after Irene

Monday, August 29th, 2011
Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York

Lady and crew are safe.
Power went out at the Whitman Motor Lodge in Hunting Station, Long Island at about 0330 Sunday morning, (and was still out when we departed there at 0800 today.)
We caught the first launch from Oyster Bay Marine Center after the rain had passed Sunday afternoon and were VERY RELIEVED to see that Lady was still in the same place we left her. The staff from the marina had already been by, checked the lines for chafe and put on some Spectra line. We did not get on board as it was still quite windy.
So, back to Huntington, where there were no lights, no TV, no WiFi and no hot water. We went to a movie (first time for that treat in many months) and enjoyed Harrison Ford in Cowboys and Aliens.
It looks like all the boats (about 200 or so) here in Oyster Bay are in good shape. The marinas have done a really good job.
Mike McNamara's Artemis II is OK in Baltimore, Maryland as is Michael and Maureen Yorke's Certo Cita in Port Washington, Long Island, New York.
No power in Oyster Bay, so no Internet here on the boat, so I'm posting this update via SSB radio - WDE9568 at Sailmail.com.

Bimbo and Lady brace for Irene

We arrived at Oyster Bay Marine Center around 1130 yesterday. Docked at the fuel dock and topped up on diesel and water.
We were assigned a temporary mooring, and the marina was very busy laying new mooring in the harbor. From talking to Barbara on another C470, Second Wind, many of the boats had booked to be hauled out, but with the reports of a predicted ten foot surge, boats would have been floating off their jackstands, so the yard was not hauling boats, and they were all having to find moorings. Nobody wanted to stay in the slips.
I tried phoning local hotels for a room, (none in Oyster Bay, not even a BnB) but the first four I called were full, so we decided to rent a car, figuring that even if we could not find a room, we could sleep in the car. Turns out that a mandatory evacuation had been called for certain parts of Long Island, so people who lived in beach houses were evacuating to hotels on higher ground, just like we wanted to.
Enterprise Car rental came to pick us up, took us to Syosset and upgraded us to a full-size Lincoln...all their smaller cars were gone.
The launch took us back out to Lady, where we unfurled the jib, dropped, folded, bagged and stowed it below. We removed our flags. I was able to get Internet, and continued trying to call hotels as Charlie worked on taking care of the main. About the fifteenth hotel I tried, I got their last room for Saturday and Sunday. We discussed that things we needed to do to make Lady as secure as possible, and made lists of things to take with us when we left her. We have to assume that we might not have power, and that flooding, fallen trees and broken glass might be issues.
It was a wonderful break that we had arranged to meet Mike and Maureen Yorke (C470 Cierta Cito) and take them to dinner in return for the fabulous meal they treated us to in Newport a couple of weeks ago. They chose a lovely restaurant, and we had a good time, though both of us were a little keyed up.
Neither of us slept well.
Up at about 0600 this morning, we added extra line to the mooring bridle, and chafe protection for it, cleared everything we could from the deck and cockpit, took down the dodger and bimini. Bimbo's (the dingy, that is) storage cooler, oars, and anchor were stowed. We packed. We expect to be back on Monday, but as well as a few clothes (no predictions of cold, just lots of rain and wind), foul-weather gear, umbrellas, laptops, flashlights, DVDs, some food and beverages like nuts, cheeses, crackers, vodka, wine, bottled water, (if there's no power, restaurants will not be open), money, boat papers, passports, jewelry (modified abandon ship list except we stepped into the Lincoln instead of the life raft).
By about 1000 there was nothing else to do except wait. We hailed the launch, evacuated with our bags and brollies and as we drove the Lincoln to the motel in Huntington Station light rain started.

Lady and Irene getting closer

We departed Newport RI yesterday at 0715 and motor-sailed all day until after dark, picking up a mooring at Port Jefferson, on the north side of Long Island (the south side of Long Island Sound).
We departed Port Jefferson at 0730 this morning, and are underway to Oyster Bay. We expect to get there before noon today. We have reserved a mooring form Oyster Bay Marine Center 516 922 6331. We are undecided whether we will take a room ashore or stay on Lady.
We will then consult with locals to get their latest weather reports, and prepare Lady for windy weather.
We have weathered two tropical depressions and one tropical storm (Hannah, Sept 2008) since we started cruising. If it looks like we will have hurricane conditions, we will seek shelter ashore.
One latest weather report indicates that the storm will pass to the west of us, and that we will experience 35 knot winds. Then we get other reports that talk about twice as much wind. Very confusing, but not something to screw with. We'll try to err on the side of caution.
(posted via WDE9568 at sailmail.com)

Lady plans to meet Irene

Sorry I haven't written up about Hadley Harbor, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket yet, with luck that will follow whenever I get some good Internet.
We monitor weather daily, and started watching Invest 97 some days ago. The depression is now a named storm, Irene, predicted to be a category 2 or 3 hurricane when it makes landfall on the US east coast.
Forecasts indicate that we are in the path of this storm.
We departed Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, this morning at 0800 and made 65 miles today.
We are presently anchored at Newport Rhode Island, after filling appropriate tanks with diesel, gasoline and water.
One of the dangers of hurricanes is that winds will be from every direction of the compass as the storm passes. After reviewing our charts we decided that Oyster Bay Harbor presented the greatest protection. We have reserved a mooring at the Oyster Bay Marine Center La 40 52.667 N Lo 073 31.733 W. We are also guessing that the storm will pass to our east, thereby placing us in the preferred northwest quadrant.
We have approximately 100 miles to go, and will make that either tomorrow or Friday morning. We hope to be on our mooring by Friday afternoon.

A busy month with family and friends!

Newport, The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

Lady's travels (map link)

July 9th to August 15th, 2011

We had pretty good wind, but also some rain as we travelled from Cockerell Creek across the Potomoc River, and found lovely Saint Inigoes Creek as an anchorage.  We went for a dinghy ride Saturday morning, and almost ran over a local gentleman's fishing line.  We went over to talk to him, and he invited us ashore for coffee.  What a treat!  Kathy and Bob are local to the area, many immediate family and cousins live around the creek, and we made some new friends!

We moved on around a few miles to Smith Creek, where we had a delicious dinner that Saturday at a place that Kathy and Bob had recommended.

Sunday July 10th we moved back out to the bay, and motored, with the engine hiccuping every so often to Solomon's Island, where we picked up a mooring at Zanhisers Marina, one of our favorite stops in previous years.

We spent almost a fortnight at Zanhisers.  We did some maintenance, using Zanhisers expert, to the boat, and met up with friends from two years ago, Carol and Bill Loring on Rigel. The weather was really hot, and we spent lots of afternoons in Zahniser's pool.

The coast guard yacht Manitou, that President Kennedy enjoyed sailing on was at the yard having work done.  Charlie and I visited her, and persuaded a member of the crew to take our picture before they departed. You can see the resemblance between John and Charlie. 

While we were there, a major east-coast regatta was held out of Solomons's Island..the Screwpile Regatta.  Mike, our son, was campaigning his Tartan 10, Artemis II in the event, and it was such fun to see them enter the harbor the first time after an overnight race from Annapolis, and then have all the crew for dinner after the first day of racing.  We've never had NINE people for dinner here, but it worked out great.  The next two days, Mike and his crew invited ME to go racing with them.  Everything was impressive...the crew all knew what they had to do without being told...and did it well; the Race Committee ran excellent courses.  I had a blast!  They didn't really need an eighth on board, but I tried to keep out of the way, and received the great compliment that I knew where to step!  Thanks Mike for such a super time!

When most of the maintenance work was done, (saved some for when we park Lady in September and visit UK and Tulsa), we headed to Galesville, on the hottest day of the year.  We went in to Pirate's Cove Marina, where our friend Jim Wohlleber had his Catalina 470, Beckoning...We were really glad to plug in to air conditioning for a couple of nights.  We became good friends with Jim a couple of years ago as we prepared for the Caribbean 1500 Rally.  He was on the rally, and we spent lots of time with him in the BVI's.

After that we move on to Annapolis, where we touched base with another C470 owner, Bob Jones and Pam, from Silhouette.  They took us out to Sunday brunch and also to their Eastport Yacht Club.  Is that an Oklahoma burgee in the club's display?

After spending too much time at Jabins's Yacht Yards, where we met up with Miles and Ann Poor (Karina, Caribbean 1500 friends), we were tired of the heat and decided to get north as soon as we could.  We departed Annapolis Wednesday July 27th, stopped the first night at Bohemia Creek, near the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and a second night at Cape May, anchored off the coast-guard station, before heading offshore, directly for Block Island, a distance of almost 200 miles.

That night, about 2100, we were almost half-way to our destination, about 40-50 miles from the nearest land when a terrific thunderstorm arrived.  We had been watching the weather all day, and knew that we could experience a storm.  We had all the sails furled by the time it was on top of us.  For about half an hour, it was very scary, with lightning hitting the water around us.  Not too much wind, but quite a bit of rain. (In that we were the highest point for 50 miles, the old adage about lighting hitting the highest point is now proven to be BS-Charlie). 

We were glad to drop anchor at Block Island at shortly before 1500 on Saturday July 30th.  We did not go ashore, as we needed to meet sister-in-law Mary Kevin McNamara in Newport the next afternoon, and also our C470 friends Mike and Maureen Yorke (Cierta Cito).

We picked up Mary Kevin at the dock, and Mike and Maureen invited us all to join them for dinner at the New York Yacht Club's Newport base, Harbor Court, for dinner.  What a treat that was.  The yacht club is in a beautiful old house at the edge of the harbor.  Magnificent views all over the harbor from the club's deck.

We took Mary Kevin sailing the next day, around Narragansett Bay, and stopped at the town of Wickford for a couple of hours.  The town has a FREE dock for visiting sailors to use for a couple of hours, so Mary Kevin and I did some shopping while Charlie took a nap.  As we left Wickford, we were surprised to see Lucky Bird on a mooring...more Caribbean 1500 friends, Alice and Bob Smith, from two years ago.  We said hi, and told them we'd catch up with them in  a couple of days.  The following day, Tuesday August 2nd, Mary and I had a good time visiting the Newport shops, while Charlie caught up on his email, then after a magnificent lunch of lobster for Mary, we bid farewell and she headed to her professional conference in Providence.

We caught up with Lucky Bird at Wickford on August 4th, and Alice and Bob joined us for dinner.  Such fun to catch up on their news and plans.

We motored up Narragansett Bay on Friday 5th August, and took a mooring at the East Greenwich Yacht Club.  After a day of cleaning and laundry, we were ready for more visitors...Anna Louise McNamara, our grand-daughter and her parents, IV and Olivia, flew from Tulsa to Providence and then came an spent a few days with us.  

They arrived Sunday afternoon, and it was so great to see them.  We walked to dinner together, and then Charlie and I got up early Monday morning to get the ebb tide down the river, then out on the ocean, bound for Block Island.  There wasn't much air, so we motored.  We found a mooring, launched the dinghy and IV took Olivia ashore to run, practice for the marathon she is planning for October.  We all met ashore for lemonade after the run, and then swam off Lady before dinner.  The water is MUCH COLDER now!  I didn't stay in very long at all.  Aldo the baker came by and we purchased some of his wares, and ordered a cheesecake that he said we could pick up the next day.

Tuesday, after Olivia's run, we all went ashore and walked into New Shoreham, where we had a delicious lunch, picked up the cake and did a little shopping.  It's over a mile to town, so Anna Louise was very tired by the time we got back to Lady.  The cheesecake was really delicious.  Covered with a chocolate ganache and fresh chocolate-dipped strawberries.  I even found birthday candles for it.

Wednesday was IV's 34th birthday.  We had a pretty good wind to start with as we sailed to Newport, where we were able to get a mooring closer to town than where we had been anchored the previous week.  We explored around town while Olivia ran, and had a delicious birthday dinner at Scales and Shells.

On Thursday we did more walking around Newport...Anna Louise found herself a new purse and feathery head-band before enjoying the playground at the park.

IV and I went out in the dinghy and watched a large fleet of J/24's racing with the Ida Lewis Yacht Club.

Another delicious dinner at The Pier Restaurant ended the day.

All too soon Anna Louise's trip was over.  Friday we loaded all their bags into the Oldport launch, and waited at the dock for their taxi to Providence airport.

After moving Lady from the mooring to the anchorage, that afternoon, Charlie and I walked along the cliffs, admiring some of the historic mansions.

Cruising around the harbor in the dinghy, we saw Alice and Bob Smith and ended up aboard Lucky Bird for drinks.  They had also had fun with family visiting since we saw them last and are now moving Lucky Bird back to Chicago via the Erie Canal.

Since then, we have done some cleaning, laundry and had a couple of rainy days.  Eating leftovers. Today (August 16th) we'll buy a few groceries and plan to leave tomorrow for Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.