Too Much Information

Red Brook Harbor N 41 40.653 , W 70 36.864

I woke up this morning to the phrase "Tropical Storm Watch" on the radio. Before I could react, they said, "cancel tropical storm watch, start tropical storm warning." The weather forecast for Friday morning was bad (35 knots) but not tropical storm. Then they said, 39 knots sustained winds. Well, that's not so bad, we've sat at anchor with worse than that. Then, the national weather service had to give one more bit of information, more than I wanted to hear. They said, "Chance of 39 knots 78%, chance of 74 or more knots 2%." 74! That's hurricane strength! It's true that 2% is a low probability, but the concept of hurricanes gets my attention. It panicked me into seeking the nearest marina for refuge.

By 9 AM we were across the bay and in a slip at Kingman Yacht Haven. It is a very very sheltered spot, and we should be very secure, but it cost me $208 for two nights at this slip. That's the highest fee we've ever paid. To put frosting on the cake, the salty dockmaster with local knowledge said, "Bah. It's going to go well east of year. It won't be bad." Darn that weather report. If they had just given me a little bit less information.

Oh well, at least we can have nice warm showers, I can fill our water tanks, and wash the boat, and we'll sleep securely.

Last night, after posting my blog, we watched the Wareham Fire Department boats doing a drill. At least I think it was a drill. One boat put out three divers with SCUBA tanks, and dragged them at low speed back and forth across the harbor in a raster pattern. It was like they were searching for a body. The second boat tried (ineffectively) to keep other boat traffic away from the divers.

Too bad we didn't have any lakes in West Charlton. Water rescue and SCUBA certification would have added interesting variety to our drills and training.

The picture shows one of those beautiful Herreshoff S boats that we saw racing in Bristol, RI. The other S boats are in the background. These boats are about 25 feet long. They sail with a crew of three and they appear to be the perfect racing machines. It was amazing to see how fast they went in light winds. Upwind, their velocity seemed to match wind speed.