When I was driving back to ATL from CHS yesterday, I passed a gazillion SC state troopers heading 180 to my direction. SC is taking this seriously. We will probably be relocating there in the not to distant future, so I’m planning my evac routes ahead of time 
The governor has said they’re expecting more wind than Hugo, and more water than Matthew. Lessons were written in blood, and this is looking like it could be another deadly storm.
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I recommend sounding the dive alarm and submerging to 150 ft for the duration.
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I had an instructor in Prototype who was on the Narwhal back in '89. She couldn’t get underway to avoid Hugo due to being shutdown and cooled down for refueling, and most of the doubled up lines parted, so they towed her to the middle of the Cooper River and put her on the bottom for the majority of the storm.
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That’s very cool!
Great story! I like how they left the safety line stanchions rigged on the fairwater planes.
Sometimes it isn’t YOUR boat you have to worry about. It’s all the other ones that aren’t prepped right that are going to stack up on yours. Too bad you can’t drive it up into the Great Dismal Swamp and tie it off to 10 trees in some hole…
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I’m sure soon we’ll start to seen the massive convoys of power company vehicles being put on loan from other southern states massing down in Atlanta and points south of Charleston. They are always ready to come help out (just as we send ours elsewhere when needed).
Looks like the models shifted ever so slightly north…just a wee higher than Wilmington now…
My understanding is, they didn’t even have time to really do much more than just rig for reduced electrical and start opening ballast tanks.
Outer Banks are under a mandatory evacuation order now too.
…wait, isn’t @hanger200 retired? I’m thinking a case of beer, a bucket of fried chicken, and take that J down (up?) the Intercoastal so that she won’t be in harm’s way.
Or Bermuda single handed. That should be fun…! Live a little…
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On a more sobering note, that’s a very dangerous game.
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Two of my closest friends were crew on the Bounty many years ago- they actually met aboard her, and got married years later- but when she was lost during Sandy, that really hit home. I’d met Captain Walbridge a couple of times at OpSail.
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Watched a local (Raleigh) news conference today and someone asked where to go in NC to escape the storm. Fellow says the storm is so large that he suggested Ohio.
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My sympathies and very sorry to bring that up @Navynuke99. A most tragic loss that might have been avoided.
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Well, since we just got a “mandatory evacuation order” (legally there is no such thing), that might not be a bad idea. I’ve got all the sails ashore and the boom below decks…so sailing is right out…but I’ve got a full tank of diesel…maybe…more on this later.
EDIT: Now it is Later: That might be a plan if the storm veers north in the next 10-12 hours. Of course we will have 6 cats to live with on a 36 ft sailboat. (Note to self: Go to drug store and purchase several bottles of Bactine beforehand.)
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Thanks. It’s something we’ve talked about a couple of times since then, and we all agree that it was completely avoidable- there was no reason Bounty had to be sailing in those kinds of seas, aside from the fact that Captain Walbridge wanted to make an appearance in Florida, as the museum was running out of money, and the ship was woefully behind in maintenance.
I just spoke to my friends a little while ago- they live in Charleston now, but he’s TAD to Norfolk right now as an MSC Reserve Officer (think Merchant Marine auxiliary), where he’s been activated to help teach Surface Warfare Officers how to drive their ships properly without hitting things. There’s a good chance we’ll all be meeting up and sharing beers in Charlotte this weekend (@BeachAV8R, if that does happen, I’ll let you know when and where).
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From the article:
For the next 45 minutes, he and Schultz …laid out a tidy plan for the rest of the trip, including …a straight shot across the bow of the hurricane directly for San Juan
In nautical (Navy) parlance that “strait shot across the bow of the hurricane” is called “crossing the T”. Every midshipman is taught to never cross the T of a hurricane. I’m fairly confident that they also drill that in at the Merchant Marine academy. It is the most dangerous thing that you can do. The storm will suck you in and you will not get out.
I am shocked that the Ship’s Master would do such a thing. Wow.
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Here is another chilling account of the El Faro disaster with more insight into the Captains role. Just so sad but also so riveting what we know of the final moments…
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