Hurricane prep
Seeing as we are right on the water, we’re doing a lot to prep for the hurricane. We don’t expect that much as far as wind goes, but the storm surge is expected to be 3-4′. That’s substantial for us.
Over the past few days we’ve been buttoning up the Morgan.
She’s shored up very well so we’re not worried about wind, so we’re tying up anything loose and doing a lot of rain-proofing. Most of our energies around the museum grounds have been focused on securing anything could float away or be damaged by high water. Luckily we have lots of heavy things to help with this.
Yep, those are anchors. We tie long straps to them that go over the wood piles and fasten into rings set in the ground on the other side. It’s a simple and effective system.
Our boats are all breasted off to give them a little room if the wind and water gets rough.
Breasting means that we tie lies in such a way as to hold the boat in position a little ways away from the dock. If we can’t breast to pilings on both sides of the boat, we’ll set anchors out away from the dock and tie into them.
The research vessel Connecticut came up river to tie up at our lift dock.
With the lift dock lowered, this is a great place to ride out a storm. There are lots of strong cleats for tying down on both sides of the boat.
Small boats that had been pulled for the season were all moved to higher ground. A group of Williams Mystic students came by to help and made the task infinitely easier.
I guess that higher ground is a relative term, but we do the best we can.
More coming when we’re on the other side of this. For those of you in harms way, we hope that you and your loved ones pull through safe, dry, and intact.