Keene Sailing

Monday, Oct. 29 2012

I woke up feeling a little guilty, this being the last 3 days of work before retirement; my iPhone is reporting a server needing attention, no reason not to get in the car and drive to Bethesda. But I know things are going to get far worse before the storm is over so I get up and checked dock lines again for the upteempth time. Around 9 the rain is now coming down very hard, this will continue all day and night, I don’t know the official rainfall for Sandy but I  would guess 4-6 inches. The wind started piping up to 20-30 knots most of the day, then starting around 7 PM we got huge gusts around 50 plus  hitting us on the beam. These gusts would heel the boat over (in the slip) 15 degrees, the doubled up lines kept us from smashing into the boat to our lee side. Dan and Melissa’s boat had a sail partially come unfurled and was flapping big time. I went down to help and by the time I got there 4 other dockmates were there to get that sail down. The wind shifted from directly on the bow, to the port beam, to dead astern as the hurricane came ashore around 8 PM and moved north. Around 11 PM the big wind gusts were finished, I was able to sleep.

Tuesday Oct, 30 2012

Well for the most part Sandy is history, we are seeing a bit of a tidal surge, the water level is 3 inches from being over the top of the dock at low tide! High tide at 6PM, we might be stuck here.