Block Party (?) last Thursday night...

C

CleatUs

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Joined
Jan 11, 2005
RO Number
16058
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4
What a wild night in the Great Salt Pond last Thursday night. Any other forum members out there for that very sleepless night? Miraculous that no one got hurt(from what I heard) amidst all that chaos. We were spared contact at the last minute, but I'll say that our family learned a lot about how to better prepare for weather coming in during the night. On a very positive and encouraging note, we saw some real heroes heroes out there braving the elements to catch and tie up pinballing boats, guiding vessels to open moorings...well done.
 
Cleatus, would love to hear more detail. What exactly happened? Did a thuderstorm roll thru? That is never pleasant in the pond, particulary in the middle of the night.
 
We got in on Friday afternon and heard about the storm. Boast spinning around the moorings, Breaking loose. I met one family at Champlins who was moored on an outside pier near the moorings. They had 4 small kids and when the saw the boast on the moorinsg going crazy, they marched the kids up to the hotel lobby. They figured if one of those boats breaking loose hit them, they coudl have difficulty getting the kids to shore safely.

My friend was the pool bar guitar player last week. He said the boast inside were rocking so bad that he could hardly walk on his boat. a 390 EC.

We had a great trip and Champlins was great as always.
 
Scott, glad to hear you had a good time and missed the drama in the pond. As always, atleast one leg of a Block trip has to be an adventure. Sound like you had yours on the way home. Nothing like breaking into clear sky in the bay after staring at your radar for a couple of hours.
 
I hear you, had a couple of close calls. a commercial fishing boat came upon us fast and looked like he had line out. I tried to hail him on the radio ch 16, 9 and 13 but couldn't rasie him. I had to guess his intentions. I was going to stop and allow him to pass so I could cross behind him. instead I changed course and looped around him

Also was staring down the bow of a 100 foot motor yacht and a large sail boat. Glad I had the radar.
 
It was 4-5 hours of sheer chaos... multiple boats simultaneously springing free from the anchorage and blowing (40 knots) toward the town mooring field. The radio whas completely buried with pleas for help to get untangled and towboat was there and doing his very best, but couldn't possibly tow in those conditions. It was an all-nighter. 40-ft sailboat flying towards us but his dragging anchor stuck at the last minute and he swung away. 3 young kids and Grandma huddling in salon. Tenders and fenders all over the place in the am. Can't do much but learn from it and be more prepared (fenders down & lights & engine keys at the ready) next time.
 
We were in the boat basin for that storm. We got tossed out of the v birth about midnight. Our slip was on the East side in the second row and we had 3 footers, in the marina, with about 24 inches between boats. I got away with minor scuffing on the swim platform rub rail until I snubbed up the spring line but several other boats were damaged. In one case a piling broke off and the boat that was tied to it banged against the boat down wind until they were able to get tied off to another piling. In another case a boat sprung up and the swim platform came down on the dock causing damage. My 10 year old was able to sleep through the whole thing and my 12 year old only woke up because I was trying to get my rain gear from under his bunk. I saw several people getting dropped off by taxis and tried to get out to their boats in the mooring fields. I guess they eventually made it but leaving that dinghy dock they were getting pounded by those 3 footers.

All in all I was pretty happy to be in a marina this time. We sat through something similar last year on Shelter Island and I spent the night resetting the hook all over West Neck Harbor. I still have nightmare about that night.
 
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