You're not the only one
Elizabeth: Your not the only one watching the hurricane. I actually wrote a response to you last night, but took it back off the forum, to think about it some more. I can't tell you what to do, but I think that I know what I'm going to do now. I did get a call from my marina this afternoon. I keep my boat on Middle River, north of Baltimore. The woman at the marina had a list of things to do if I were to keep my boat in the water. It included having good docklines, removing all canvas from the boat, and any carpeting that was around it. My main concern was storm surge, which she said was predicted to be from 4 to 12 feet. I have seen photos of my boat with the dock submerged during a previous hurricane, but that was probably only a 3 or 4 foot surge. She said that the wind was actually their biggest concern. (A 12 foot surge is my biggest concern). There are several of us who have boats on the bay, including my Manager, so there was plenty of discussion about this issue around where I work today. I have decided to pull my boat out of the water on Wednesday morning and bring it to my house in Harrisburg, PA. As I said, I can't tell you what to do, who knows what will happen? I have been through this many times before over the last 25 years, and never really had a problem. What we did last time a hurricane was suppose to come up the bay was check with the marina where we normally pull our boat out. We asked if we could keep it there on the trailer. They said that it was probably better protected at our regular marina. Our marina is all the way up Middle River, and very protected. So we did leave it in the slip. We put extra lines on the boat and removed the rudder and the sails. It was fine. Your dock lines should be adjusted so that your boat can still rise, but not hit the dock, of course. This will end the season for us, I'm not going to bring the boat back to the bay this season, if we bring it home. This makes me sad, because fall is really my favorite time of the year to sail on the Chesapeake. The temperature is much cooler, and every sail is like a gift. I wish you the best whatever you decide to do. Elizabeth: You should check out Catalina 22 Fleet 10. We were in South River this summer, during on our weeklong cruise. Some of the fleet members actually keep their boats in the South River. It's fun to sail with other 22s, and it's a very nice group of people. Contact me at aa.camacci@comcast.net if your interested, and I send you some photos, or forward your name to some of the leaders of the fleet. Aldo