Hurricane Earl
02 September 2010 | Whortonsville, NC
Lane Kendall
The Carolina coast has not seen a major hurricane in some time but our luck has run out. Hurricane Earl has been churning out in the Caribbean and south Atlantic for about a week. I pay more attention to the tropical weather forecast this time of year than our local forecast. I had been watching Earl for several days and he seemed harmless because he was supposed to turn north and then east back out to sea. The trouble is, he decided to make a much slower turn than the forecasters thought.
Wednesday September 1, 2010
I had alerted my boss that I might need to take a vacation day. He was very understanding and told me to drive safely. I spoke to Jeanette at noon. She and Nick were very concerned and were treating the weather event very seriously. I left after work and arrived at Ensign Harbor before 10pm. It was hard to believe that a major storm was closing in. The weather was just beautiful but I was concerned that the water was already a little higher than average. I had eaten fast food on the way so I just unpacked and went to bed.
Thursday September 2, 2010
The weather was still very nice but the northeast wind was already evident. I was up early. Many of our dock mates were there preparing for the storm. Hurricanes are unpredictable and it's hard to know what just what to do. I needed to remove canvas and do anything to reduce the effect of the wind on the boat. The most important thing is to arrange the dock lines to allow for high water. The unpredictability of a major storm makes the whole thing a crapshoot. I fiddled ad fussed for a couple of hours and finally declared it the best I could do.
The mood of all the dock mates was somber. We all did all we could and most of us left for home. Joey had been on board his boat before during a hurricane and he said he did not recommend it. There comes a point where you cannot get off the boat even if you want or need to.
At this writing (about 7pm on Thursday) the storm is a category 3 and is forecast to pass within 100 miles of Cape Hatteras. We will be watching closely and hoping Earl passes quickly.
Wish us luck!