Trying to reason with hurricane season

We arrived at Cherry Point on Wednesday 28 September after spending a night at the free town dock in Belhaven because there were threats of storms that never materialized but more on that later. We moved on to Hancock Creek Marina at Cherry Point Marine Corps Aviation Station where we planned to visit the family of one of my sons since he was going to be away.  We expected a short visit with our drive to move on to Charleston, SC where we planned to spend some time and leave the boat for our visit back to the Chicago area but hurricane season got in the way.

We left Coinjock, the first port in North Carolina and everything was pretty much as usual. No wind, little traffic and we made Belhaven in a day and then on to Cherry Point. In the past we have anchored in the Pungo River just after completing the canal but we seemed to get through it early this time and the threat of storms drove us to go on to Belhaven. We have stayed at the Dowry Creek Marina in the past but never actually gotten in to Belhaven which is a reportedly cute little town. So we found the free docks and with a couple discussions with the Dockmaster pulled in and tied up. We walked into Town and had dinner at the Fish Hook Cafe because it was the only restaurant open on Tuesday. Other than the nearby granary working all night it was very peaceful.

Sleeping grandkids on our little cruise.

The next day we left early and motored on to Cherry Point. Along the way we stopped in to Oriental for fuel and a possible pump out but it seems someone took the deck fitting so we couldn't use the pump out. There was again a threat of storms so instead of waiting for the town to fix it we went on to Cherry Point.  Fortunately again the storms were a no show.

So far we have been visiting with our grandkids as our schedules allow. They are in school all day with some evening activities, their Mom works and my son is away, But when we got here the tropical threat became real and we began to assess our options.

Based on the storm projections there seemed to be a good likelihood that the hurricane Mathew would significantly impact this area. That didn't leave many options. The first was we could quickly press on to Charleston but that seemed like a bad place to be. Second, we could try to retreat back to the Chesapeake but the storm could impact there as well and we would then have to retrace our progress. Next, we could try to find a good place close to hide or we could just stay here.

This marina is tucked into a creek about 15 miles above a tidal flow and has 360 degree protection from chop with excellent wind protection for at least 270 degrees. While not the perfect hurricane hole this was pretty good. There is a small channel coming in so swell and surge would be minimal. We are in a large slip with lots of room on either side so we can tie the boat between the finger piers with ample slack to ride up any surge. With family and friends here why go anyplace else?

So since we got here we worked to reinforce our position. Sunday we took the grandkids and our daughter-in-law for a boat ride so we could pump out having failed before, We also setup normal hurricane prep - double lines with chafe protection; filled the water tank; removed head sails and canvas; keeping the batteries full; secured everything on deck and got supplies for a couple day passage.  While you can never be ready, we think we are ready. Very early in my Army career someone implored that you always work to improve your position and we have done that, When under assault you don't want to think of the shoulda, coulda, woulda's. You want to think through everything in advance. The only additional thing I can think of doing if the threat was more is to go out and drop anchors and then secure the boat as we are but with the shift of the track it doesn't seem that great. About midweek the track shifted from a direct hit to passing east and turning south away from us.

In applying my double lines I was able to improve the arrangement with docking options available by distributing the load along the dock and also on the 3 cleats on each side of the boat. There were 2 very stout pilings at the end of each finger pier which while not all the way to our bow made good tie points and then there are 3 cleats on each finger pier and 2 along the dock behind the boat. By varying the angles it also created support for multiple wind directions since the wind shifts in large and small directions altering the stress on each line. I was able to arrange the lines so that there shouldn't be 2 lines of stress on any cleat at any time.

So we set up the boat, did some provisioning and waited. On the night before the storm we got together with friends Dave and Polly Brown who live near New Bern and had a nice happy hour in their beautiful home and then went out for Thai food. We also had lunch with them a week earlier because they're a fun couple. Nice to try to keep some sense of normalcy with the events swirling around.

 Our friends Dave and Polly..

The weather became windy and rainy almost a week before the storm arrived so the ground was very saturated causing great fear of falling trees. Rain and wind began building on Friday with the storm's expected arrival on Saturday. Saturday morning we moved our rental car out of the marina lot to higher ground so in the event of flooding it wouldn't get wet and parked it away from trees that might blow down. The rain began falling in earnest Saturday morning as the wind built. Just before noon it was announced that a tornado warning was issued for the area just south of us so we packed some bags and put in the trunk of the rental car just in case we needed to leave in a hurry.

Beginning of the storm.

Saturday afternoon we disconnected our shore power in anticipation of the power being shut off and rolled up the power cord. With the wind speed we hoped our windgen would keep us in power and wouldn't need our diesel generator. Later we walked over to the Club House and chatted with some other folks there as the power was now off. As it was getting dark we went back to the boat to weather the storm.

Rain fell in buckets from just about dark until about midnight and the wind really began building. We watched the movie the Heart of the Sea about the true story that inspired the novel Moby Dick with the wind and rain surrounding us. We checked the line frequently but the water level never rose much. We continued checking the lines about every 2 hours all night but the water level never changed. The wind changed direction ti more behind us that was even better sheltered so we really didn't feel much of the 30 kt winds but the frequently high gusts rocked the boat as they blasted through.

Scene in the morning.

Once it started getting daylight it was obvious there wouldn't be any more high water and it had not rained in hours. The wind gusts continued into the afternoon but the land protection made the wind bearable. About mid-morning the sun came out brightly for the first time in about a week and the storm was gone. Now to get everything back to normal.

In a couple of days we will be leaving for Chicago for about a week so we will leave the boat prepped in the unlikely event of another storm while we watch reports of damages further down the coast and figure out our course from here. Fortunately we had no damage from the storm but many did and we regret their losses. So once again we made it through a storm in a safe spot. We learned that the marina where we have reservations over the holidays is fine. It's just where we go between now and then. So much for the reasoning in hurricane season.