Thursday, August 20, 2009

Warren Island - Yes, we know about hurricane Bill


We had a nice, calm night after our sail with Dick and Barb Burns yesterday. They invited us over for breakfast at their lovely cape style house right on the water with a view of the bay (see photo - note the sign, "Burns Eye View"). It's like being at a vacation site all the time. The view is always changing with the boats coming and going and with the changing weather, just beautiful. Breakfast was sumptuous and then it was time to reprovision at the local Hannafords. One of the things of high value on a cruise is the ability to get to a major supermarket. In this case Dick provided the transportation and we are now even better stocked up. On the way back we just had to stop at the home store of the Hamilton Marine chain. The owner and founder, Wayne Hamilton, lives next door to Dick. Of course we couldn't walk out without buying a few items.

Back to the boat, we set out for Warren Island and had a wonderful sail once again, what a period of good weather! Speaking of weather, we keep a close eye on all approaching storms. We access the NOAA Hurricane center daily, then we track the individual storms such as Hurricane Bill, followed by the local marine forecast and finally by a local forecast for the nearest city which in this case is Rockland. After all that I download Grib data which shows winds and storms over the next five days with detailed, local resolution, hour by hour. Lastly, I will access the Portland NOAA weather radar when the storm is close enough for fine detail. After digesting all that data, we jointly decide what the best plan of action is for the next few days. If for some reason I can't access the internet, I fall back on marine radio weather broadcasts. However, in Penobscot Bay, I can always get an internet connection. If bad weather is approaching, I make sure we can get connected - perhaps at a local library WiFi hotspot if I can't get out on the cellphone. So we know about Hurricane Bill, we'll be in a safe spot, we already made reservations at Journey's End Marina for Saturday and Sunday at an inside dock, very well protected. Don't worry about us.

Warren Island is a state park and a great place to walk Hoolie. They also have moorings for use by the public for $10/night if they so desire. We just dropped the anchor, it's simpler. Ann took Hoolie ashore for exercise and other things that dogs do when going ashore twice a day. We'll probably head for Rockland Friday for a mooring at Beggar's Wharf, depends on the weather.

0 comments: