Just an update….blue skies and beautiful weather – this is what comes after the storm.
As you probably are aware after hitting the Bahamas harshly, Hurricane Joaquin veered East and headed into the Atlantic, posing no threat to the east coast of the United States.
We learned there are multiple models for hurricane tracking. Most specifically, the US model and the European model. The European model aways showed Hurricane Joaquin would track into the ocean while the US model showed it hitting the mid-Atlantic. Over the days the US model shifted to eventually be more in alignment with the European model.
The European model has proved to be more accurate in predicting the movements of other hurricanes in the past as well, especially 3 years ago when it predicted Sandy would hit New England and the US model had predicted the storm to go out to sea. From what I can tell, US weather forecasters report the US model predictions and I had to really search the internet to find the European model, once I learned about it. You can be sure we will be tracking both models (if not more as we learn about them) in the future and prepare for the worst case scenario whichever model calls for it.
We have no regrets over preparing for the potential storm by removing the canvas and the two fore sails and doubling up our dock lines. It was great practice and we got a better understanding of the boat and how certain things work.
The nor’easter did bring much rain and lots of wind over the next few days with the wind finally easing Sunday afternoon. Even double tied in the most protected part of the marina, Dreamtime was rocking and rolling. We were never worried during this, and I enjoyed the ride from the coziness of the cabin down below.
Thankfully the rains that have devastated South Carolina are not affecting us at all.
Yesterday we reinstalled the canvas which didn’t take long at all. But we opted to wait until today with less wind in the forecast to re-rig the sails. You don’t want to be handling unsecured big sails in the wind if you can avoid it.
Thank you for your concerns during the uncertainty.
All is well, and we are still planning to untie the dock lines in a couple of weeks and head south via the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida (if not beyond).