Thursday 10/25/2012
We had PLANNED to do some sailing – and when we departed for Deltaville VA – this little blip in the news called Sandy was just some storm in the Caribbean. Nothing for us to worry about here in the South Chesapeake Bay.
But no. Suddenly Sandy is predicted to take on the mid-Atlantic along with her sister storm Nor’Easter and voila a Perfect Storm is in the cards. And if that’s not enough, there is a full moon and Halloween coming up – and suddenly FrankenStorm is being born.
Thus, it’s no surprise Sandy is the talk of Deltaville. Everywhere you go – everyone is talking Sandy. Currently they are expecting gale force winds here – which we can handle, but the storm surge is the potential problem. There are 2 “hurricane holes” that we can go to: one an hour away, and another 10 min from here. If it looks like it will get pretty bad – then we’ll probably opt to leave the dock and tuck into a smaller waterway with lots of land protection.
If the surge is over 4 feet, then water will be on top of the dock – cuz they are fixed docks here. More than 8 feet and the boat will float off the pilings…so this is our current concern. We are also thinking about fleeing to Baltimore and tuck into some marina, but this is a last choice because of the distance and time it will take to travel. We’d basically have to do a pedal to the metal 24 hour trip – and night-time is not the best on the Chesapeake (many obstacles ).
Soooo – we’re in wait mode (for more data) to see which mode we’ll need to take. aiii. Today is beautiful here – light winds – not enuf for sailing – a lovely calm b4 the storm 😉
Friday 10/26/2012
The marina is a buzz with activity. Boat owners everywhere taking down their sails and tucking away anything that could blow with the wind. Cruisers are taking refuge by setting out a spider web of anchors.
Current model shows a direct hit of Hurricane Sandy to Baltimore! AIII!!! Ok – here is the update. We’ve made plans to have the sails removed today…and will fuel up this afternoon. We’ve stocked up on food n kitty food for u know who. We will have to go up into Wilton Creek, and we checked it out via car — looks to be very well protected. Paddy checked the mariner reports on Wilton Creek and it has good holding grounds, surrounded by high terrain and lots of trees. We will depart for Wilton Creek tomorrow am…along with probably a zillion other yacht-ie types 😉
Sun – Mon – Tue are supposto be bad here, so we’ll be hopefully secured in Wilton Creek. I bought chocolate in case I go stir crazy. We won’t have electrical = heat….so that will be a downside. I do have lots of clothes… Was not planning to have to wait out a hurricane on our boat in a little creek…aiiii..what is…is. I’m stressing with the thought of little to nil electricity (only when we run the diesel engines)…no heat…and no endorphins. I may have to dig into that bag of chocolates early. Will plan for a very LONG jog tomorrow AM before departure to Wilton Creek. 😉
later in the day on Friday:
For a very brief moment, we were soooooooooooo excited cuz the marina was going to relocate us to another dock. Then…somebody by the name of “Keith” intervened….and said we had to leave. I think he owns the place.
We finished putting 30 gal of diesel (5 gal at a time) into Cat Maudy. Since some uber large yacht took over the fuel dock – we weren’t able to saddle up and get fuel. So, we had to use a 5 gal jug – and make 6 trips to the fuel dock to get juice…then dump it into Cat Maudy. This took about 2 hours. We now have 40 gallons to ride out the Sandy wave.
The marina is practically empty now. Kind of eerie. All day long boats were getting hauled out…or just leaving the dock for that creek the locals are calling a hurricane hole. The wind forecasts are getting stronger. Steady 40…gusts to 45. Let’s hope they don’t go higher.
We left the car on higher grounds…and left the keys with our marina buddy Ed. I asked Ed to hold onto our car keys, just in case. Just in case Ed needs to come and rescue us.
Starting to feel the stress now of the “unknown”. I may need to get another batch of chocolate before we depart in the AM.
Plain Jane Plain Talk 
I really enjoyed all your posts about anchoring in Wilton Creek during Sandy.
We thinking about using Wilton Creek as a hurricane hole in the next month if necessary.
How many other boats were anchored in the creek for Sandy?
Did anyone drag that you know of?
We’re you and the other boats using a single anchor or multiple anchors?
Would you use Wilton Creek again as a hurricane hole?
Thanks for any info you can provide.
We’re you able to access shore in your dingy anywhere in the creek?
Thanks!
Dave
Thank you for reading! There may have been up to 10 boats anchored in Wilton Creek, several catamarans and the remaining monohulls. We did not drag, or experience others dragging — but must confess we were on constant alert for that! We set 1 anchor — ours was a German made Bugel – and the grounds were excellent for holding. We anchored what felt like the middle of the channel – and others did the same. Along the sides of the creek you could see that fallen trees scattered the shoreline, so while I often thought of if we had to abandon ship – could we get to shore without puncturing our soft bottom dingy — fortunately we did not need to test that! If you have a hard bottom dingy you may have less worry. The shoreline was remote — ie trees along an embankment and we did not notice any lights from residences. It was hard to tell if the trees had ‘Posted’ signs everywhere…tho we really didn’t want to test if the locals would be kind to strangers. Would highly recommend this creek for shelter, we would do it again if needed, and hoping of course not to need. Good luck with your adventures and hope you won’t have a need for this either! Jane
Thank you for reading! There may have been up to 10 boats anchored in Wilton Creek, several catamarans and the remaining monohulls. We did not drag, or experience others dragging — but must confess we were on constant alert for that! We set 1 anchor — ours was a German made Bugel – and the grounds were excellent for holding. We anchored what felt like the middle of the channel – and others did the same. Along the sides of the creek you could see that fallen trees scattered the shoreline, so while I often thought of if we had to abandon ship – could we get to shore without puncturing our soft bottom dingy — fortunately we did not need to test that! If you have a hard bottom dingy you may have less worry. The shoreline was remote — ie trees along an embankment and we did not notice any lights from residences. It was hard to tell if the trees had ‘Posted’ signs everywhere…tho we really didn’t want to test if the locals would be kind to strangers. Would highly recommend this creek for shelter, we would do it again if needed, and hoping of course not to need. Good luck with your adventures and hope you won’t have a need for this either! Jane