Irene

Keeping our eye out on Irene as each day brings new information. We like number 96 the best hurricane images .

Depending on the conditions we will be rigging for a storm soon, as Irene moves north and east, further away from us, a tidal surges begins to replace wind worries. Heck we could get both. The Chesapeake Bay can get quite a surge if the winds, tide and moon line up...we will see.

Last year we had an "unexpected" maintenance project, to replace our 23 year old dock. We took that opportunity to have installed Tide Slides  and have so far been absolutely thrilled the results. We also built the dock about a foot higher than the old one. We tie the boat in very tightly and she rises and falls with the tide, spider webbed and well off the dock in the Tide Slides lines. While we have had storms in the past since installing but we have not had a hurricane pass by so this will be the first real big test.

The new pilings are larger and the Tide Slides are robust enough to handle most winds and tidal surges at least anything close to 8+ ft above a normal high tide should be fine. The largest tidal surge we know in our area was 7.5-8 ft but an average bad storm is more in the 4-5ft range.

I will double the the 3/4"lines, shut down the power and take in the boarding ramp as the storm gets closer. Honestly I am more concerned with other boats floating free and becoming a problem so may hang a few fenders outboard?

Here is a link for great weather graphics:  spaghettimodels