Lesson learned from Hurricane Irene: Do your own thing.

Heading Home: The start of our return to port, before we knew we’d be seeking shelter from the storm! [Photograph by Ann Marie Maguire]

We sailed into our home port of Belfast, Maine, after two weeks of cruising just days before Hurricane Irene made land fall in North Carolina. We spent the winter refitting and living aboard our Bristol 24, Mama Tried, but the previous two weeks were the first cruising either of us had done.

We hadn’t intended to return to Belfast, but our engine was overheating and a chainplate had wiggled its way along the hull and created a nasty gash in the deck, not to mention tickling our nerves a little. We had decided to delay our lives as transient boat hippies just a little longer to make the repairs, when caught wind of Hurricane Irene stewing far to the south of us. Just as well, we thought, as we pointed Mama Tried for home.

Upon arriving in Belfast, we were a little surprised to find the harbor, which is a small but busy one in Maine’s Penobscot Bay, was sparsely populated.

Over the next three days, we saw more and more empty moorings and the town’s public parking lots and two boatyards became overrun with boats being pulled out of the water in anticipation of Irene. They were lining them up on the hard, masts, sails, and all. Most of the boats would be launched again the following week, so people could still have their Labor Day weekend sails.

Boats hauled for Irene: One of many parking lots filled with boats on the hard the day before Irene met New England.

We’re new to this, but that two week cruise taught us a lot.

Mostly, that everyone has advice, and some of it is good, and some of it is not.

Robin furls the mainsail of MAMA TRIED

Our sloop, MAMA TRIED, ready to ride out the storm at Thompson’s Wharf in Belfast, Maine.

It took us twenty brutal hours being tossed around on a mooring in an inhospitable harbor to realize that our informed decisions, based on listening to the weather and scrutinizing our charts, were just as valuable as the advice of others, regardless of their experience or how much we liked them.

So we listened to reports of Irene, we carefully considered our harbor, and we decided to stay in the water. Everyone we ran into on the waterfront wanted to know what we’d be doing for the storm. We told them we’d tie on extra lines, put on some larger fenders, and keep an eye on her.

Irene reached us, that’s exactly what we did. We unplugged the VHF antenna, stowed our solar panels, closed the seacocks, made plans to spend the night ashore, and checked on the boat, which we moved to a public dock, every few hours.

In the end, Irene wasn’t much along the Maine coast. We had a mighty high tide, some stiff wind and a whole lot of rain, but I was never overly concerned about the boat.

Hurricane Irene reiterated that most important of lessons; trust your own decisions.

I’m doing something new, but I’m not unprepared for it. I am well-armed with information to make good choices. In the case of Irene, experience backed me up.

Most of those boats are back in the harbor now. We repaired our deck and the chainplate looks good. We finished up repairing the outboard’s raw water cooling system yesterday.

We’ll be off again soon for another few weeks of sailing, stockpiling as many lessons and mistakes as we can before winter rolls into Maine again.

About Robin Mc Carthy

Robin McCarthy lives and writes aboard Mama Tried, the 1968 24′ Bristol Corsair that she and her boyfriend rescued and refit in Belfast, Maine, in 2010. She writes about sailing and living aboard at womanenough.net.

Read also on this website

• Oh, no, not another hurricane!, by Pam Wall
• Weather Resources: Lots of links to useful websites on hurricane preparation and weather forecasts.

Have you prepared for a hurricane aboard? What did you learn? Would you do anything different next time?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.