Hampton, Virginia was struck by a tornado last night.
We were at a party for the Southern Bay Race Week regatta at Hampton Yacht Club, with our son Mike and his Artemis II crew, when the security guard got the band to stop playing and moved everyone from the party tent to inside the Yacht Club building, and then continued to herd everyone (a couple of hundred people or more) away from the windows and into the hallways behind the bar. I was able to look out at one point and I saw fifty masts all heeled at about 45 degrees. That was right before the big picture windows of the club exploded inwards. My dinner plate got lost in the shuffle, as did a flip-flop, which was later recovered.
After that it was certainly time for everyone to go home. In the yacht club parking lot boats on trailers had been blown over each other like dominoes falling. Lots of cars had windows blown out. Walking back to Lady we saw trees and chimneys down.
Back on Lady, our bimini, dodger and side-curtains were a mess. The cabin was not too bad, as most everything was still stowed from our recent passages. It was interesting that the refrigerator contents had all slid to port.
Today we have been able to evaluate our damage. We have put back the bimini and dodger as best we can, sewing zippers together as needed. The stantions on the port side by the jerry-cans are bent inwards but can be repaired. They were next to the dock, and the fender between the hull and the piling was up on deck, but no damage to the hull. We seem to have lost the long starboard cockpit cushion. The Oklahoma flag was not tornado-proof and is shredded. We have swept a lot of debris from the cockpit and dried out everything, One of my toes must have got stepped on in the crush as it is quite sore.
Our friends MC and Andre from Dancing Lizard were tied up at the same dock, and were aboard when the tornado hit. It was very scary for them, but they are both OK. The damage to their Moody 46 is a shredded jib, and a torn up toe rail.
Free Hampton WIFI is not working yet, but perhaps it will be by Monday, and I'll post some pictures then.
Hampton is having the annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival this weekend, so we're looking forward to a fireworks display tonight.
After two weeks of successfully dodging tropical storms in the Atlantic, we get nailed while tied up to a dock, but that's life. This could have been much worse, not just for us, but for the hundreds of people at the yacht club. We were amazed to learn that there were no deaths or serious injuries; you would never have guessed that after seeing the damage at the yacht club.
Maps
- 2012 Summer
Summer 2012 cruise from Hampton, Virginia north and back - Summer 2011
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahamas, North Carolina and points north. - Winter 2010 - 2011 Eastern Caribbean
Left Trinidad in November 2010; cruised up eastern Caribbean chain ending at Fajardo, Puerto Rico in March 2011
Other blogs and websites
Recent reads
Chris Doyle: 2009-2010 Sailors Guide to the Windward Islands: Martinique to Grenada
Our guide book to the islands. We've met Chris a few times on our travels.Dick Drechsler: Manning Up In Alaska, An Astounding Tale of Overcoming Cancer, Sailing 2600 Miles to Alaska and Finding New Direction
Catalina 470 # 140. Some of his early adventures could have been Charlie's...learning to sail at summer camp...docking a large keelboat at a marina slip under sail after the engine failed...making friends and anchoring our at the lake...Tony Horwitz: Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
A wonderful marina exchange find! (*****)Trevor Corson: The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean (P.S.)
Seeing all the lobster trap buoys, seeing the lobster men at work generated a lot of questions. This is a WONDERFUL read, and I recommend for anybody who likes lobster! (*****)- Hank and Jan Taft, Curtis Rindlaub: A Cruising Guide to the Maine coast
Ours is an older edition, but as Charlie likes to say, "the islands haven't moved!" (*****) Tom Neale: All in the Same Boat : Living Aboard and Cruising
Useful reference. (*****)Chris Santella: Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die: Sailing Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations
IV and Olivia gave us this for my birthday. We have already added two more to our bucket list...but it will be a long time until we are done. (*****)Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
I loved this non-fiction account of a mountaineer's ongoing goal to build elementary schools in remote area of Pakistan and Afghanistan. (*****)Claiborne S. Young: Cruising Guide To Coastal North Carolina
Another great cruising guide from Claiborne Young. (*****)
« Lady arrived in Hampton | Main | Recovering In Hampton »
June 02, 2012
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We were very lucky nobody got hurt! Made it back to Baltimore in 25.5 hours, but my phone ended up in Davy Jones locker!
Posted by: Mike | June 03, 2012 at 03:00 PM
Oh no! Hope everything was backed up! How did that happen?
Posted by: Jenny | June 03, 2012 at 03:52 PM
Since you asked, I was taking a leak and it fell out of my bib pocket ;)
Posted by: Mike | June 03, 2012 at 09:28 PM