RICANE, and up-to-the minute news
on any active storm development,
visit the BoatU.S. Hurricane Resource
Center at www.BoatUS.com/Hurricanes
THE BOATU.S. MARINE INSURANCE
HURRICANE CATASTROPHE TEAM
includes insurance adjustors, crane
operators, truck drivers, surveyors,
salvage workers, subcontractors, and
other professionals brought into a
hurricane-damaged area by BoatU.S.
to help our BoatU.S. Marine Insurance
clients rescue their boats, and to deal
with their insurance claims on the
spot. Visit www.BoatUS.com/insur-
ance. For a You Tube news report on
the Cat Team, watch www.youtube.
com/watch?v=EDdtDF2VXw4
VISIT “THE LOG OF ITHAKA” ON
OUR BOATU.S. MAGAZINE’S WEB-
SITE to read about the voyages of
Douglas and Bernadette Bernon, who
sailed their 39-foot sloop Ithaka down
to South America and back to Rhode
Island. The Bernons filed stories
every two weeks for BoatU.S. during
their six-year liveaboard adventure,
and these entertaining logs include
plenty of how-to information, great
photos, lessons learned, and planning
tips. www.BoatUS.com/Magazine
ONLINE EXTRA
you COULD do it. But between you and
me, man, you’d better be tied at a shallow dock, plugged in, and have a couple
of mother bilge pumps honking that water
out.” But he told us what we needed to
know, that the seal would be safe, albeit
weepy, until we could haul out in a few days’
time — unless we used the engine, which
would allow water to spray in through the
rotating shaft.
HERE’S THE TWIST
We had several choices. One, we could
relive the rigmarole of the night before, in
reverse. But we’d have to motorsail all day
against a wicked tide, back up Delaware Bay
in fog, dodging tankers, then motor back
through the 14-mile C&D Canal, and look
for a boatyard in the Chesapeake, taking
turns manning the bilge pump every half-hour — an unappealing option. Two, we
could sail north up the Atlantic coast to New
Jersey and put in someplace where we could
arrange to haul out — an option we felt had
too many unknowns. Three, we could carry
on, sailing 220 miles home to Rhode Island
without using the engine.
There was another option, of course,
to call the local TowBoatU.S. operators, and
ask their advice in recommending a place
to haul out; they were always helpful. This
would have been the sensible move under
normal circumstances, but there was another
significant factor at play. Within 48 hours,
a hurricane was forecast to start hammering the Chesapeake with 120-mile-per-hour
winds and flooding rains, which meant local
marinas and boatyards were filled with regular customers. We and many other transient
boaters had nowhere safe to haul or tie up.
We all wanted to get our boats out of harm’s
way fast, which meant as far from here as
possible, by the time the hurricane hit. For
Ithaka to do that, we’d need to average at
least five knots to Newport.
This is the stuff of boating decisions
— nothing clear-cut, every solution carrying
its own price. Douglas and I agreed that we
just couldn’t risk wasting this crucial escape
day trying to find a place to secure our boat,
and then either have that place get hit full
force by the hurricane, or even worse, fail
to secure a place at a marina at all, and
then have to find a decent hurricane hole in
which to anchor — with a packing gland we
couldn’t trust, gushing seawater every time
we used the engine. Not good.
The newest forecast had the wind in the
hurricane strengthening, and the clock ticking. The freshening wind helped us make
the call. It was strong and getting stronger,
from the southwest, and forecast to stay that
way for at least 24 more hours, which would
put it at our backs if we sailed northeast.
Ithaka would fly at eight or nine knots in
those excellent sailing conditions. We talked
it over, then trimmed the sails with determination and headed 220 miles toward home.
LANDFALL
Forty hours later, on September 17, 2003,
Ithaka made safe landfall in Newport Harbor,
soaring in under sail. The following day,
September 18, Hurricane Isabel, clocking
105 miles per hour, hit the mid-Atlantic
states with deadly force, bringing with it a
devastating storm surge that flooded cities,
and carved up Hatteras Island in North
Carolina with new inlets.
Isabel had been identified as a Category
5 hurricane only three days before it hit
land; the hurricane warning had not been
issued until two days before its landfall in
North Carolina. Isabel resulted in 16 hurri-cane-related deaths, $3.6 billion in damage,
hundreds of thousands of evacuations, 6
million households without power, the closing of 19 major airports, and the U.S. Navy
evacuating aircraft carriers, submarines, and
dozens of aircraft from Norfolk, Virginia.
The BoatU.S. Marine Insurance
Hurricane “Catastrophe Team,” which set
up their mobile operations immediately after
the hurricane in the hardest-hit regions, to
help its insurance clients, reported 24,000
boats damaged due to Hurricane Isabel.
Douglas and I were lucky. The strengthening winds had carried us home, and away
from the greater danger. We were able to sail
Ithaka through the busy Newport Harbor
and to our mooring without the engine. By
the time the highest winds hit New England
on September 18, we’d stripped the boat
of all her canvas and windage, reinforced
her mooring lines, and were in our house
watching the news coverage on television,
knowing how close we’d come to having a
far different ending to our story.
Bernadette is Consulting Editorial Director of
BoatU.S. Magazine, on the advisory board of the
BoatU.S. Foundation, co-founder of the Safety At
Sea Institute, and former Editorial Director of
Cruising World and Sailing World magazines.
