Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Scenes from Sandy

Hurricane Sandy was kind to us - we never lost power at the house. More importantly - the boat is in one piece. We walked down to the marina around 3pm Monday before the worst of the storm. We had added extra lines and everything still looked secure so we trudged back home, hunkered down for the night, and kept an eye on things through the marina website. Granted, we wouldn't have been able to do anything if we saw issues on the webcam - we just wanted to know what was going on - perhaps we just wanted to be prepared for what we would see Tuesday morning.

Here are some scenes from our walk this morning:
This is the gate to our pier. We are on a floating dock. The dock is normally 3-4 feet lower than the brick promenade. The high tide and storm surge is nothing like Hurricane Isabel but still impressive.
The marina was prepared and secured the dock carts.
Downed lightpost.
The wildlife is back.
A bit of water in this well-secured dinghy.
This dinghy didn't fare as well.
Luv'n Life III is floating and doing well. We took down the strata and isinglass and used the cockpit cover for the storm.
It's crazy that I can almost touch the top of the pylons.
This bridge is normally a few feet above the waterline. (Sorry for the blurry spots. It was still raining when I took the photo.)
This is one block from our house. On a positive note - the houses don't appear to be damaged.
They were predicting 8 foot waves in the Chesapeake Bay. 8 FOOT WAVES! I'm seeing scary footage from Ocean City and Annapolis. Friends in Middle River have posted images of their flooded dock. I'm feeling very grateful for my good luck and my heart goes out to those in New York City right now.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Annual Clam Bake

This past weekend Almost Home organized an annual clam bake at Fairlee Creek. Doug and I left Friday evening in order to make the most of our (potentially last) weekend on the water. There was much discussion about how we all love the many seasons of Fairlee Creek. There's the wild and crazy summer days and nights. Those are the days when anything can happen - bathing suits may come off, bands will play, and boats may collide. This weekend was the other side of Fairlee. This was the quiet, restful, and natural side of Fairlee. (Okay, okay, when bathing suits come off that is also "natural" or should I say "au natural.")

This is the time of year when you can easily get an anchorage spot at the beach. Check out the first image on this post to see how busy the beach can get during the summer. Since we were the first to arrive, we set both a bow and stern anchor. Hint: Use the stern anchor line as a tow rope for pulling the dinghy back and forth to shore.
The beach was clean and ready for us:
Friends were anchored in another part of the creek and we were able to visit with them for awhile. Then we had the pleasant surprise of friends we hadn't seen in a while.
Don't you love how their son gets to ride in the dinghy as it's being lowered into the water?
We built a bonfire for the five of us and spend the evening catching up on the summer's stories.

Doesn't this look like a perfect way to spend an evening?
The next morning, we scoured the beach for more driftwood. It was a cool morning and it felt more like a fall beach day in New England. I'm sure there have been a few bonfires already this year because the beach was picked through:
But, you never know what sort of "treasures" you may find along the way:
We were successful in starting a good pile:
And then we put the kids to work once they arrived:
The kids also built their own mini-bonfire. They built it in a clearing that wasn't visible from the "adult bonfire." Obviously, that wasn't safe (and a little too "Lord of the Flies"), so the parents made them move it to another part of the beach.

We had six boats and a yummy feast. If you are interested in how a clam bake works, check out my post from last year.

On a final note, who says the water around Baltimore is dead? Just look at what happens to a ladder left in the water around the marina: