Owning a sailboat which is tied up 3 hours away gives one a whole new appreciation for anxiety during a hurricane. Everyone at Ensign Harbor had indicated that the winds are not as threatening as the change in water level. Before leaving the boat, I had done my best to secure the boat while leaving plenty of "float" slack in the dock lines.
TownDock.net has a wonderful feature known as the
HarborCam!. It takes regular photos of the town dock and the back side of the Bean. Since we had visited there on our bikes on Sunday, we could use these photos to monitor the changes in water level. The photos above represent the change by late afternoon on Wednesday, relative to the "normal" water levels.
I reached a point of concern where I phoned Nick at the marina and asked him to toss off the starboard side breast line because I felt like that one was too short.
We took off to play volleyball on Wednesday evening, slightly guilty that we were enjoying such fine weather, while those in Whortonsville and Oriental were suffering through a hurricane.
At some point in the night, the HarborCam! was damaged; however, Keith Smith's regular text updates on TownDock.net allowed me to monitor the storm's progress.
I breathed a sigh of relief the next morning when I read the following entry:
"Reports From The Village
September 15, 2005
Ophelia's water levels rose all night....but at sunrise the water levels have begun to drop. We hope it keeps going...
At 8am the feel of relief is powerful. We still have a village full of water....but it is water on the way out.
The tops of the handrails are a very welcome sight as water begins to drop."
By tomorrow night we will know if we still have a boat docked in Whortonsville.