High tide again this morning and the dock was under water. This is just related to high tide, nothing to do with the impending storm. The area just next to the boat in this picture is actually the dock, just about 2 inches under water. Jeff has set up the dinghy as a bridge making it lots easier to get on and off the boat. Over the next few days we will see a continual higher tide because of the full moon and the storm surge. Our dock lines are tied in such a way as to accommodate the fluctuations and Jeff continues to tweak them as necessary. Concerns about the lines are to both ensure they keep us from hitting the dock yet keep us secured to it once the wind kicks up.
We spent the morning adding dock lines and fenders along with our neighbors doing the same. There are four of us that plan to wait things out here and given how dock lines now form a web across the basin between each of the four boats, no one’s leaving soon. One boat took everything down to stow below; roller furling head sail, main sail, dodger and Bimini. We have stowed our side panels, wrapped a halyard around the head sail and placed ties around the main. We may still take down the dodger and Bimini but thought it would be best to do so after a good rain shower, we took a lot of spray over the deck last Sunday and everything is pretty salty.
Based on current forecasts, winds from the storm should begin to impact us sometime Sunday morning and may continue for several days. Rainfall amounts will be very high and flooding will be an issue, of course we do live on a boat so we do float. Want to make sure everyone knows that we are on a dock and can get on shore quickly if it becomes necessary to leave the boat.
We know everyone is concerned about us and we appreciate it very much! We will try to provide updates as things progress. However, we may loose Internet and cell phone service so don’t panic if you don’t hear from us right away.
On a less dramatic note, we have had to begin water rationing. We can carry 150 gallons of fresh water on board which lasts about a week with normal usage, the last fill up opportunity was a week ago in Annapolis. We started conserving 2 days ago since we wanted to stay here, we don’t normally use paper products or bottled water but have stocked up now to reduce water usage from the tanks. We’ll use the bottled water for drinking and cooking and no dish washing necessary with paper, happy to report that we can use stored water for showers.
Thanks Angie, I will plan to catch some of that rain water. We feel like we’re pretty well protected from all but a south wind – just have to wait and see now. Hope all is well for you!
Stay safe! Hopefully with all the rain you can fill up your water tanks. I guess it is too early to tell which side of the storm you be on to prepare for the wind directions. Hopefully as it gets closer you will have more information,my guess would be you will experience winds from the NW then the SW, hopefully that blows you off the dock.