2012, October 28th and onward. H’cane Sandy.

While the computer models diverged a bit about Sandy’s predicted path early on it became quite clear to me that we would bear the brunt of some of the fury. I forget which day I went up to Nyack before the storm hit but it was a few days prior to any expected impact.
We stripped the sails off and removed the boom, added a set of longer pennants to our mooring for a total of 4, with chafing gear and ran lines from the anchor cleat back around the mast and cockpit winches and such. I removed and inserted the plugs for our forward cowl vents to close them for the impending expected weather. The solar panel was also stashed below as was any extra removable windage. The forward hatch was secured with a plastic wire tie and all thru hulls were closed. We did what we could and noticed many other boat owners preparing their boats for what might come. What would come we knew not.

Once the computer storm path ‘spaghetti’ models started to converge on a landfall around Seaside Heights, NJ, and the storm agreed I knew that we would be on the wrong quadrant of the storm. The north east corner of any tropical cyclone is the most dangerous in part because of the mass of water it pushes before it that can cause storm surges and higher wind speeds. NOAA began predicting fairly alarming storm surge heights for our area as Sandy approached.

As Sandy closed in I was monitoring the high and low tides at The Battery (southernmost Manhattan) and Sandy Hook, NJ on a NOAA website.
tidal graph
The peak flood hit us in NY City around 7 pm local time so there was no light to take any decently shocking pictures. We lost power about the same time as “the surge”. Once the lights went out I noticed what might have been lightning but was most likely transformers in the electrical grid giving up the ghost with spectacular explosions. I am just happy that Sandy was not slower moving and did not bring us yet one more peak flood tide.

This photo was taken before the flood, looking west at the Hudson River only 2 blocks away from the corner of our building. The stop sign and white pedestrian lines in the foreground were just under water at the height of the deluge.
Watts St.
The afternoon before the really high tide I took a walk down to the Hudson River Park to check on the river’s height. It was closer to low tide but the water level was already up to the walkway in the park.
Walkway

I had been monitoring the weather as long as we had power and internet, I had seen how high the storm surge was and I listened to the damage reports come in on my battery powered radio on WNYC so I had largely resigned myself to the fact that “Odalisque” was likely a casualty of the storm herself. Cell phone service was largely wiped out where we live so I had to learn how to send text messages instead as they would go through but voice calls would not. The day after the storm I found out that “Odalisque” had survived from a text message I received from Matt.

We lost power for 5 days in Tribeca, lower Manhattan, which seemed to be the average for those who were mildly affected by the storm. First hand reports from Sea Cliff, on the north shore of Long Island and Nyack in Rockland county revealed that many homes in these suburban areas lost power for about the same amount of time. We were quite lucky compared to those who lived in other low lying coastal areas. Living without power for those 5 days highlighted how dependent I have become to having the internet and even electric lighting.

On my first visit to Nyack post-Sandy I was impressed with the damage that had been inflicted on NBC. I was also saddened by the number of moored boats that had broken loose (20+), many of them totaled and one completely disappeared. It will take quite a bit of work for NBC to get back to the state it was in before Sandy.

As it turned out our haul out was delayed a week by the effects of Sandy but “Odalisque” is now high and dry on the hard, sitting comfortably in her own cradle, ready or not for the winter to come.

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3 Responses to 2012, October 28th and onward. H’cane Sandy.

  1. chip says:

    Glad you and “Odalisque” made it out relatively unscathed Caleb.

  2. Freddie says:

    Man, I had no idea the damage it would cause…Sandy was tough and nasty but glad she wasn’t a hurricane…Glad to see Odalisque is high and dry and ready for another season and that no other T27’s were lost as far as I know from the yahoo group! Looks like you went through plenty of preparations though…

    The worst for me was the wait while Destinada rocked up and down during the storm…The times I went to check on her, I glanced cause I could not bear looking at her for too long…

    I have been doing a few winter projects on Destinada including a thorough cleaning of the bilge, doing a few things to the A4, and contemplating painting the interior…Although my interior is not bad, it just has a few spots that are bubbling/peeling cause of a crappy paint job done before…I do hope to re-paint the deck/cabin top and do some re-coring after haul out next year…but we’ll see…

    Right now I have some glass work to on my bottom from hitting a few rocks…that will have to wait till warmer weather in the spring though…my centerboard needs servicing too…so does my jib…I’ll have to prioritize!

  3. Rod Whitelaw says:

    Enjoy and concur re your T27 ramblings.
    I’ve owned LARK, No. 363, for sixteen years
    and appreciate her more with each passing year!

    Rod

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