To those of you in the path of Hurricane Florence I wish you the best stay safe. Bill Lewis as I recall you are in the Hilton Head area hope you folks can get to higher ground. From what I’m reading and hearing the Carolinas, Va and mid Atlantic states are going to take the brunt of it. Gary Diamond I understand the Governor of MD has declared a state of emergency. Stay safe!

I keep hoping this thing will be "influenced" by weather activity advancing from the southern Caribbean and make a sweeping right turn away from land. As you said, Stephen... I hope everyone in the predicted path will stay safe and seek higher ground inland.

Hi - thanks - I'm in central NC (Raleigh area), so it's a direct threat here. Hopefully for us that are "inland" like I am, it won't be as bad as the impact closer to the coast. Hope for their sake (closer to shore) that its impact is less than they are predicting now ...

Jim

GET OUT and stay safe all in the path..

Take good care, stay safe everybody.

Its going far enough North so Hilton Head / Bluffton is safe. Got a call from one of my old best friends from NJ who just moved to Florida offering to let us stay with him if we bailed out of here. Made us feel better as we had no where to go. As of last Sat. couldn't get a room anywhere.
Its the craziness thats gets me. Gas stations, stores, propane stations were mobbed yesterday and running out of stuff. Schools and almost everything else closed all week. Even my bowling alley is closed, I've got nothing to do LOL !
Went to my township gym yesterday and when I turned into the lot it was an Army encampment. Couldn't believe the amount of trucks and equipment there. Radar disks, fuel trucks, Humvees, etc.
Makes you "Northerners" with your snow storm panics seem calm. All you worry about is milk, bread and toilet paper.
My neighbor works at a high end assisted living facility on HH and she had to go to Raleigh ( where the storms headed ! ) with all the residents they evacuated. She's not happy !! Oh well, she does get time and a half.

Fire up the BK9 and start playing songs you'll feel much better

Oh yea I'm going to spend some time on the BK9 as have some more edits I want to do. that never seems to end. I can also jump on my FP90 and get lost for a long time. Then theres the Model RR I'm building which takes a lot of work.
Did I say nothing to do HA!
Really, I like to get out everyday and do something physical. Go to the gym, go bowl some games, or play golf. I'll just have to be happy going to our community gym for awhile, and the pools still open. Oh, poor me.

Bill tough life but somebody has to do it may as well be you! GRIN

I'm not worried about the storm. I will go to the boat and double up some of the dock lines, lengthen them to accommodate any tidal surge and river riseings, but for the most part, there's nothing else I can do. I think the worst we will get is high water from the Susquehanna River, but not much in the way of winds.

Yesterday, there was a waterspout sighted near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, a huge one that would have been devastating had it hit the bridges. Now, those things scare the Hell out of me. I've only seen one while sailing, but it got my undivided attention. It passed within a half mile of my boat and touched down on Tilghman Island, doing millions in damage.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/waterspout-twists-chesapeake-bay-57716835

Stay safe, everyone,

Gary

I've got my acoustic guitar, my violin, and a trumpet (friend plays that one), all set for acoustic music if I lose power :-) I remember in a few power outages, having a friend or two from nearby over, and we jammed using just acoustic instruments! "The old fashioned way"! :-)

[I also have a large battery with inverter for A/C power, but I'll probably save that for emergency needs should I need it ... it can nicely run my Genos and a small PA though!]

:-)

Jim

Gary
I have a friend here moving from Long Island. He was a big boater for many years and belonged to a club. He told me when Sandy hit some of the members did as you are with their boats and some took them out. The ones that were out of the water sitting on pedastals ( or whatever you sit large boats on ) all got trashed, some completely.
Sounds like your making the right move old salt.

The problem with putting your boat on land, especially in a flood prone area, such as the Jersey coast, is the tidal surge can actually lift the boat from the jack stands and float it away to where it will be dashed against an immovable object.

The other problem is that unless the boats on jack stands is anchored or tethered to the ground, high winds can easily topple the boat, especially sail boats because of their mast height. My mast is nearly 60 feet above the ground when I'm on jack stands.

In the water, and tied to a pier, especially a floating dock, you just double up the mooring lines. However, if the tidal surge is extremely high, the floating dock can actually lift above the anchoring poles and float away with all the boats still tied to the dock. I saw that happen during Hurricane Camille, when a 80-foot section of dock came floating down the Susquehanna River from the town of Port Deposit with a dozen boats still attached. Ironically, all the boats and the section of floating dock passed beneath the Amtrac Bridge without hitting it, then went aground on the Susquehanna Flats. All the boats were retrieved about a week after the storm passed.

When a hurricane approaches the US Naval Bases, such as Norfolk, Portsmouth, San Diego, the ships leave the docks and go into the nearby bays and anchor up to ride out the storm. Sometimes, they go out to sea and ride it out, but these ships are built to handle any kind of weather. I only rode out one while in the US Navy, Hurricane Hazel. Thought I was gonna die. Some sailors were so seasick they wished they would die.

All the best,

Gary