Our first real hurricane since I have owned this boat! Scott came out and helped me take down the main and genny, remove the booms and double up the lines. I also cut up an old towel to use as chafe protection. Used duct tape to seal up the companionway and the deck vent. I also used it on the cockpit and anchor lockers, as well as to secure the RF lines, etc.

I thought about hauling the boat, but after reading many posts on Sailnet and Odayowners, I decided my best shot was at the dock. When prepping for the storm on Friday (the storm was due on Saturday night), I noted that no one else had hauled either and so I felt better. I was afraid that if I pulled the boat, the parking lot was so low that a real storm surge would knock over boats on stands, or maybe even float them off the stands.

Anyway, the storm hit on Saturday night, and we lost power very early Sunday morning. Irene was officially a tropical storm when she made landfall somewhere in Fairfield County, but she dumped a lot of rain and wind anyway. We didn't get power or phone back until Monday late morning.

Dad went over on to the marina on Monday and told me the boat looked fine.
I didn't get the chance to go to the boat to see my self until the next Friday, and it was nice to see that there was no damage. I put the boom and main back on myself, and tidied up. One unforseen problem: the duct tape didn't come off cleanly. It left quite a mess.

On Saturday, Patti, Lily and I went to the boat for a sail. We put on the genny, filled the gas tank, and removed as much of the duct tape gunk as possible. We had a short sail as Lily got a little seasick, but it was fun to be back out. There was so much debris in the water! We saw whole trees and numerous logs and branches.

The weirdest thing: the Welcome Mat. Lily bought me that mat as a present about ten years ago, and it has graced the dock ever since. After I had prepped the boat for the hurricane, I realized that I had forgotten to take the mat with me. The most surprising thing I saw after the storm was that the mat was still there! One of the other guys told me the storm surge nearly lifted the docks off of the pilings and that the entire parking lot was flooded, but the mat somehow stayed on the dock.

Lily was very pleased with this, and we all looked over the mat before leaving the dock for our sail on Saturday. However, after we returned to the dock (our sail lasted about an hour and a half), the mat was gone! Did we somehow knock it into the water? Did someone swipe it? Very, very strange.