September 1, 2010 to September 5, 2010 - Hurricane Earl - 299 Days To Go!

Wednesday, September 1st - Cast off from the Herreshoff dock at 10:30 am, traveled past Newport and Point Judith, RI.  The seas were a little lumpy with a swell that would rock us side to side.  Once we rounded Point Judith, the seas smoothed out and we enjoyed our lunch that we had purchased in Bristol.  We are now in familiar waters as we head through Watch Hill Pass, past Stonington and on up the Mystic River.  We arrived  at our home port around 4 pm after a pleasant, uneventful sail.

Thursday, September 2nd - Hurricane Earl is supposed to arrive in the area tomorrow night.  Boat owners have begun to arrive and tie extra lines on their boats.  The marina has begun to make preparations for his arrival.  They have hauled a boat or two, removed and stored the dock carts and umbrellas that are usually on the picnic tables throughout the yard.  We will be staying on board for the duration of the storm unless it gets to rough and unsafe.

Friday, September 3rd - The day started sunny and little wind, but as time went by, clouds began to form and the wind picked up a little bit.  Hurricane Earl is scheduled to arrive around 7 pm as a category 2 hurricane.  We sat on board all day, read and watched the Weather Channel for updates on his progress.  Bob and I took a dinghy ride up the Mystic River.  We had seen a number of very large boats go up the river during the day to take refuge from the storm and we wanted to see where they were.  There were three large (over 120 feet) yachts that had been tucked into slips at Mystic Seaport Marine.  One of them, Bayou, even had an amphibious car on the upper deck!  We decided to have an early dinner, so Bob went picked up a pizza at Angie's.  Once the pizza was finished, again, we sat and waited, still not much happening.  We briefly lost TV satellite reception, so I decided to go read some more in bed.  I was waiting all night for the wind to start to howl and the waves to begin slapping on the boat, but nothing materialized.  We may have wind gusts of only 15 mph.

Saturday, September 4th - woke up this morning to find a much cooler day and that Hurricane Earl had been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane and  had passed the Mystic area with not ill effect!  Today, a front from the west had arrived, which brought the much cooler, less humid weather, but strong winds.  One of the folks on a sailboat here at the marina clocked wind gusts at 42 mph!  The wind today was much stronger than during the hurricane.  Here is a picture of the swells that rolled through the marina