Just a tropical depression my @$$

[Foul Hooked]

Did'nt pay a lot of attention to Ernesto since it was supposed to be just remnants of a tropical system before it hit Southern Maryland. Anyway, it blew 35 -45 sustained with gusts in the mid-50s for almost 24 hours. Straight out of the east no less and it stacked the water and waves up nicely against those of us living on the western shore.

Last night was stressfull as high tide was around 9:45pm. I started checking the boat on the lift (the Rybo) around 6:00 and the water was lapping against the hull. I was powerless as we had no power and couldn't raise the boat anymore. At 8:00pm, there was water in the boat up to about the starters (water was getting in through the drain plug). Mind you, my place is on a tidal creek just off the patuxent river and never see's any wave action. Not this night, I had rollers and breakers coming right down the creek. I considered jumping in and putting the drain plug back in, but it seemed much to dangerous, as I would have had to gone under with all those waves to make it happen. 8 inches of rain from up top and 4-5 feet above mean high water from below - this was turning into a crappy evening.

Went and checked again arund high tide - water in the boat, and the starters are covered. Water is about an inch below the boat lift motors. The boat itself though is still sitting nicely on the lift. I looks over at the neighbors and his jetskiis are not looking good as their floating docks were at the top of their range. At the same time, breakers are actually crashing onto his pontoon boat! I talked to Brian (lowprofile) and he was experiencing similar issues down on the southern end of the county. Both his carolina classic was floating of his lift and his cousin's fountain off of his.

Anyway, about 10:30 that night, the water started to come down as the wind died a bit and we were past high tide. Water levels now just a few inches below where Isabel had them. My boat is fine, but the starters may need replacement before long. Talked to Brian and all is well on his end as well. We just got power back a few hours ago (out since 9am yesterday).

I did take a drive around the neighborhood this morning and we fared wayyyyy better than a lot of folks. As far as I could see on the river, every dock was missing or severely damaged. I could see tidelines on a waterfront home.

This one was bad - I'll be cleaning up all weekend

[ocnslr]

Rob, sorry to hear of the difficult time. At least no serious damage, and no one hurt.

We had some very strong, sustained easterly winds in the mouth of the Bay down here (40-50kts), and 10.22 inches of rain officially in Norfolk. Lots of flooded streets and intersections, some homes, and a LOT of cars flooded and damaged. High tide yesterday afternoon was only about three feet above normal HW, so no problem for us.

Brian

[rocksandblues]

saw more sunk boats, destroyed docks, and boats in yards than Isabell. we got wacked here on the lower Potomac. I only lost my outriggers as the boat rode high in the covered slip and they got hung up in the rafters.

[Proheat]

Rob- We got hit pretty hard over here in Indian River Delaware. We came down friday night and arrive around 10:00 pm. The roads were flooded and we had no power. Decided to check the boat, and driveing to the marina we start seeing more roads flooded, pontoon boats sitting across the road- drive around the pontoon boat and see others with broken tops handing down. At the one marina, there was a sailboat that broke its mooring and rubbed some poles- not a pretty site. Finally get to my boat and there is 3 feet of water over the catwalks. I can see from the truck that side and aft curtains are flapping, but at least its floating level and staying in place. Well we finally go back to our place and wait it out- transformers are arking and sparking. Electric company shows up and starts working. They got it back on around 2:00am. After first light, we start checking out damage and find trees and limbs down everywhere. It took my son and myself several hours of cleaning up today. Went and checked my boat in daylight and find some damage- the zippers on aft canvas ripped out and boat had rubbed some dock posts and have some gelcoat damage. I guess overall, we made out ok. I took some video footage and maybe will post it.

I hope everyone survived the storm ok.


Barry

[Deep C]

Hey... No complainin out of you yankee type folks. You guys need to ride a one a two and couple threes in just two years like we did out to get the ol juices flowin...

The big blows do suck. Hope it gets better quick...

[Proheat]

Hey... No complainin out of you yankee type folks. You guys need to ride a one a two and couple threes in just two years like we did out to get the ol juices flowin...

The big blows do suck. Hope it gets better quick...

Deep- I can only imagine what its like on a more regular basis........No thanks, I'll pass!

At least my damage was minimal, it just bothers me when you think about what you do to keep your boat in nice shape all the time and then have damage to it and you couldn't prevent it! I could have pulled the boat out last weekend and took it home, but I thought that Ernesto was supposed to hit the gulf coast, and not come up here. Well.......I guess that I have to call the insurance company and find out how many hoops I have to jump through for them to fix the damage. I never had a claim for my boats before, but I'll find out how they work.

[Deep C]

I'm used to the drill... Double 1' lines all the way around or lash her to a cradle on land and strap and spike the cradle. During Wilma last year we had four boats flat disappear off the top rack of the in/out at our marina. Just flat vanished... During Frances the year before she cooked over hurricane force for 31 hours and evn the heavy lines didn't keep the boats in place. Just the crane and barge fees to the county plucking the remains came to ove a mil and a half... There was a football field square roughly of twisted metal and chunks of fiberglass stacked 40 feet high next door to my other marina...

[Tuna Taxi]

Sorry Rob, it was probably my fault. I usually stand at Rudee inlet and cheer the storms on. hurricane = $$ for me, my wife laughs as I cheer at the TV when they report a good storm.

Kidding aside, this storm was forecast as a non-event, and became an event as soon as it got this way. Glad the Rybo did not come off her perch, and that you fared better than others. This was a similar storm to Isabel, high to the north and tropical storm to the south, colliding over the Chesapeake. In my neighborhod, there were a couple submerged mailboxes. Glad I'm on high ground.

[Foul Hooked]

I took the pontoon boat out today and surveyed some damage. Lots of 2x6's floating everywhere from the damaged and destroyed docks. I did see a couple of submerged boats here and there and the damage seemed to be limited to the western shore of in this area.

I ran down to the hardware store today and there were folks there that were just shaking there heads Didn't expect this one.

[Foul Hooked]

Those pics were not at my house, but near by. They lost a 30 foor grady, 26 sea fox and a skiff in that surge and waves.