East Coast Sailors,

Hurricane Irene seems to be creating havoc along the eastern seaboard. Here in Newport we have the calm before the storm. Even though the storm has been downgraded to Category 1, we are expecting a sizable storm surge and 5 to 10 inches rain. I just returned from the marina helping everyone tie up boats and conduct storm preps.

On the front page of USA Today online, the following AP Photo was displayed:

Caption: Boats are bashed against the shore in Morehead City, N.C., on Saturday. (By Chuck Burton, AP)

Is that a J/30 with the bow pointing towards us?

So far this isn't too bad in RI. The winds are not as strong as predicted at only Cat 1 and the rain is much less. We lost power just after noon so are cooking on the propane grill for now. The reported surge is only 4 feet in Newport.

Obviously we have cell phone service so I can post using my Droid.

How did the Annapolis and LIS boats fare?

I am curious too. Many people are with out power and of course Internet. so it may be a few days before we know.

Thomas Point peaked at 49 knots Sat 08/27/11 22:30 with a gust of 62 at 22:18. Winds were sustained over 30 from 2pm Sat afternoon until 7:30 AM Sunday morning, 40+ from 6 PM until 1 AM. Limited tidal flooding probably due to the path of the storm with the Chesapeake on the western side. Power is still out in Eastport. Have not heard any news of damage to any J/30s.

Power back on in Portsmouth but not Newport. So far have confirmation that the following J/30s are ok: Rhapsody, Vee Jay, Falcon, Karinosa, *Nemesis, Blitz (hauled for season), Dexterity, Flying High, Keltyk Knot (was hauled), Wicked

Mark said the boat moored next to Nemesis broke loose and washed up on the shore. The launch has been pulled so he can't get to the boat until Weds. Nemesis appears ok, but he wants to check to make sure nothing brushed up alongside causing damage.

Here is a photo from the Newport Navy Marina taken by one of our YC members on Sunday afternoon. We had a surge of about 4 feet above normal. The marina is well protected with land on 4 sides, so was not exposed to the fetch built up in Narragansett Bay. Waves at the mouth of the bay were 20 feet.

The brick building is where we store sails for Shields & Rhodes 19s, and we were lucky the water didn't reach that. It's normally about 6 feet above the water. The floating dock shown is where the R19s are normally. They were all pulled for the storm.

Although not apparent, winds were steady 35 gusting to 50 when this picture was taken.