Sunday, September 5, 2010

Earl peaked at 41.7 knots

All of us in St. Pierre are glad last night is over.  Earl tracked north of us but we still got a bit of a blow.  Winds were continuous in the 35 knot range all night.  The peak reading recorded was 41.7 knots or about 48 mph.  I was fortunate in two ways:  the boat was on the lee side of a large dock that broke a lot of the wind and chop and the tide went down as the evening progressed so that at peak wind the deck of Reboot was actually below the level of the dock.  That did not prevent the wind on the mast and boom and jib from bouncing me around a lot.  About 2AM I set the anchor drag alarm and went to bed.  (The theory behind the anchor drag alarms was that if I broke free of the dock my position would change and the alarm would go off.)

This morning it is clear - except for the fog at the harbor entrance.  I never realized you could have fog in 25 knot winds but as the locals say "welcome to the Maritimes." Wave reports are still pretty ugly but I had already expected to hunker down today and set sail tomorrow morning.  The wind is still whistling through the rigging of all the boats here, it should be Halloween night!

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