Izzy on the Chesapeake

[reedbr]

A friend forwarded this page to me.  It looks like Herrington Harbor North on Herring Bay south of Annapolis.  This is actually about 30 miles north of where I keep my boat in Solomons.  When the water rises over the breakwater and land at Herrington North, this is pretty exposed to the Bay.  I think one of our own forum members had a C34 weather the storm OK in the water at this marina.  Actually, if I remember right he was out of town and she had to prep the boat.  It might be a C34MKII in the foreground of the mast-top shot.  

Anyway, in all its gruesome detail, here it is:

http://members.cox.net/gbennett11

Brian Reed
1997 C34 mkII "Ambitious"
Solomons, MD

[Steve S.]

Thanks for getting the photos, Brian.   It was our boat, Kuching Ayer, that survived the surge.  Unfortunately, it is just out of the frame of the mast-top photo, just on the far side of the blue Bertram that you can see in the left hand side.  As you can see, we were very lucky as we were on E dock, and A-D were completely destroyed.  My wife's handi-work even became somewhat famous. When were touring around on the 20th, we pointed our boat out to a few folks and they all noted "So yours was the one with 16 lines attached?!"

[john daley]

A bit off the track, Steve, but I've always noticed the name of your boat "Kuching Ayer" when you've been on the web. Of course its Malay in origin - I used to live and work in Kuching, Sarawak, in East Malaysia (Borneo) when I was a young fellow and it was a dark and romantic place to be!! What's your connection?

[Steve S.]

Selamat Pagi John:

My wife and I were stationed in Singapore from 89-92 for the US Dept. of Ag and Bahasa Malaysia was my qualifying language. I traveled to Peninsular Malayasia, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, but Kuching and Kota Kinabalu on Borneo were always my favorite places to go.  Singapore was also where we first learned to sail on 14 foot lasers on the South China Sea, usually by sailing around tankers and container ships at anchor.  When we returned State-side, we bought a 21 foot MacGregor, then went up to a 27 foot Catalina and now the 34, all named on some variation of "Kucing Air" (actual Malaysian spelling) or "Water (air) Cat (kucing)".

You are the second person to notice in 11 years, the first being an ex-diplomat who was  posted in KL.  Most folks mistake the Kuching for Ka-ching, the sound of a cash register, which is pretty appropriate also.

[Tom Glennon]

Brian:

great job with the photos... Being in Massachusetts on Buzzards bay, we didn't have much at all.  Still, with the fickled nature of these storms, I did strip my boat of all canvas, and make-fast any and all movable things.  It does amaze me, after viewing the Marina pictures, how many of the sailboats had their sails, dodgers, booms, etc. still affixed.

[Alohman]

We live in Galesville, MD which is right down the road from Herrington Harbor North.  We also say similar pier/boat damage at Hartge's and West River Yacht Haven.  I think that when a storm like this approaches, you have only three options.  

1) leave the boat at the slip and do the best you can to secure the boat.  This option, in my opinion is the worst.  The rising tide means at some point you can no longer get to the boat to adjust lines, and if the pier breaks up, there goes your boat.  Damage to the boat from hitting the pilings etc can be severe.

2)  Have the boat hauled.  This option is better than the first, but if the boats start getting knocked down off the stands during the wind, in some marinas this is a domino effect.  Also, at the marina at the base of the Chesp. Bridge, the tide came up so high, that many boats simply floated off the stands.

3.  In my opinion, the best option is to move the boat into a " hurricane hole".  A creek with high banks on the sides.  There are a lot of these along the bay.

When we figured that this storm was going to hit our area with significant force, we opted to move our boat to a "hurricane hole".  We took the boat into a creek that was well protected with high banks, laid out two anchors with extra chain and rode. climbed the bank and tied 200'ft of rode to two different trees.  If the boat broke its anchors, it would have washed onto the shore which had such steep banks that the boat would not have gone down completly on her sides.  (We had asked permission of the homeowner in advance who was more than willing to allow us to access his property and even let us park our car there so we could get home)

During the return trip, we saw dozens and dozens of piers which had significant damage.  While I realize many people may not have any other options,  I think being on the pier during an intense storm is probably the worst place to be.  Thank goodness the area did not take a direct hit from Isabel.  I doubt there would have been any good options in that case.
Vicky
Vicky