June 7, 2021
This morning I met my friend, Shelley, at the pool for some water aerobics and girl talk. It was a beautiful morning, but our chat turned to getting ready for Elsa to arrive.
It was hard to determine, at this point, what kind of punch Elsa would deliver. The forecasters had been all over the map as to how Cuba would affect her. Would she split into two storms, would she cross Florida back into the Atlantic, or drive straight up the coast from Florida to New England? Would she become a hurricane, or stay a tropical storm, or even downgrade to a tropical depression by the time she reached Chesapeake Bay. No one seemed to know the answers definitively, but as she makes landfall today, maybe we would get a clearer picture.
Nevertheless, she would arrive in Virginia tomorrow, and we must make preparations today. Ben was working on installing a bigger pump for the new air conditioner, but after discussion, we both decided we would wait until after the storm to cut over to the new pump. It took so much effort when we installed the AC to bleed all the lines and get it cooling, that we were a little gun shy to say the least. It was one thing to be without air when you could open the windows and let, even the hot, humid breezes in, but quite another thing when you couldn’t open the windows because of rain and wind. The cabin could become stuffy and hot quickly in these conditions. This would make cooking and sleeping miserable. So we decided to wait on this task and focus on other chores that were needed to get ready for whatever Elsa brought.
I cooked two meals yesterday, so that I wouldn’t have to heat up the cabin cooking. Even with AC, we usually vent a hatch to let out the heat when cooking and this wouldn’t be possible on Thursday night. So I planned to only use the microwave to heat up the precooked food. I made quiche, macaroni and cheese with ham and berry cobbler. That should hold us for a couple of days.
Now our attention turned to readying the boat. We needed to secure everything outside the boat as we still we still unsure how much wind would come our way. It could be anywhere from 35 knots to 60 knots. Thus, we must prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
We pulled out both headsails and furled them tighter and wound additional wraps around them. In big wind you do not want even a small lip of the sail to come out as this could provide just enough leverage to pull the whole sail out. A full sail would provide so much windage that it could rip the boat from the docks, and we could be hurled into neighboring boats or other docks. Once the headsails were secured, we tied down the stack pack with the main inside. We tightened the mainsheets so that the boom wouldn’t sway.
Next we began securing the rest of the boat:
- Secured the dinghy to keep it from swinging
- Tied up and stowed all loose lines
- Moved the ice chest under the table
- Removed all cushions and stowed them inside
- Rolled up the side enclosures
- Assured the forward hatch air vents were closed
- Removed all trash and
- Filled up the water tanks.
Once all these chores were completed, we began the task of doubling up lines and repositioning them so that we were centered in the slip.
Now we were ready and as secure as possible to wait out the storm which was supposed to arrive in earnest tomorrow evening.
June 8, 2021
Elsa made landfall yesterday in Florida and it looked like it was heading straight north over land. This was good and bad for us. It was good in that it should not strengthen into a hurricane as it would not go over water, but on this trajectory, it would be headed almost straight for us, and we would be on the back side of the tropical storm. This is usually the side with more wind and rain. We could only hope that it would dissipate and lose strength as it moved over land. However, it was moving faster than expected and might arrive before dark which would give it less time to become disorganized, but maybe it would pass us quickly.
I am happy that it may be here by 20:00 or so because I was not sure I would sleep much if it arrived at midnight as previously suspected. Maybe, then it would be gone before midnight.
The rain began right at 12:00 noon just as forecasted by Weather.com. It had been a gentle rain so far, but we expected that it would increase in velocity as the day moved to evening. So we sat and waited in our “tiny house”. We read, took naps, and listened to the gentle rain.
Around 18:45, the rain began to pick up and by 20:00, it became apparent that the brunt of the storm had arrived.
There were multiple tornado warnings on TV which were headed our way, but luckily, they dissipated before they reached us. Nevertheless, the wind began to cycle around the boat. We saw max winds of 47 knots, but this protective cove provided a nice safe haven. By 21:30 the main storm seemed to have passed us by, and according to Weather.com, we should not have much rain after 23:00. So it looked like we could get a restful night’s sleep after all. We dodged a bullet this time! We want this will be our story for this season!
Now hopefully we can get our ac pump installed this weekend and begin exploring in earnest on Monday.
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