Longest Night of my Life
My H54 has been on a mooring at Tidewater Marina in Havre de Grace, MD this summer. Dockmaster found all of us slips so that the mooring field would be clear. I spent Thusday night aboard Impulse. Just after midnight, all hell broke loose. Earlier in the evening, when wind was from NE, it blew water out of the bay and caused a super low tide. I measured water level in my slip at 9pm -- was 64" below top of bulkhead. Just after midnight, the water reached the top of the bulkhead, as the wind had clocked around to SE. By 2:30am, the waves started crashing over the seawall, so I moved my car out of the parking lot & up the hill. At 3am, I set a 3rd line for both stbd. bow & stern, as the flooding was so bad I realized it would be the last chance to safely get off the boat. At 4am, the marina sent a backhoe out to bring me in -- the flooding was so bad, they were worried it was unsafe to stay on the boat. I've attached a pic taken at sunrise. My boat can just barely be seen if you look just beneath the lowers of the sailboat in the center foreground. Mine was on southern end of first row of C dock, facing the bay. Looked like I was back on a mooring, as all pilings were submerged by then. Water continued to rise in the morning. Power boats that were hauled and placed on jackstands began to float free. Walls to marina store blown out by force of the waves. Very ugly mess. When I finally got back aboard later on Friday afternoon, I found 2 of my 3 stbd. bow lines had snapped, and 1 of the 3 stbd. stern lines. All the ones that broke were laid lines -- none of the braided lines broke, although most of them wore through the chafing gear and were chafed. Three sailboats sank during the storm. One holed itself when it got too far back in its slip and transom banged on a piling. Another sailboat blew a bow line, then got blown into slip next to it, sinking both that boat & itself. The forecast was for a storm surge of 4 to 8 feet. I would guess it was at least 5 feet over the bulkhead, and probably 7 feet over normal high tide. Heard talk that it was highest it had ever been, even worse than 1933 (before my time). Very hard to tie boats for this kind of tidal range. I only had 1 foot clearance on either side of me, as only 2/3 of my boat fit in the slip they gave me. Many boats had minor damage from rubbing on pilings. I was spared that because of staying aboard and tending my lines until I had to leave. One piling looked like my boat may have come down on top of it, but so far I haven't been able to find any damage to the boat. Feel very lucky. Wind only got up to 20-25 mph gusting 40. The waves and high water did most of the damage. Eric Lorgus 1983 H54 'Impulse'
