OCT Wind Storm 2006

DaleH · Oct 31, 2006

Wow, New England had another doozy sent up our way :shock: !

I am sooooooooooooo glad I decided to pull the boat

on Friday evening before the forecasted winds hit up to or > 60 knots :roll: ! The sea buoys offshore this area recorded waves in excess of 13' with a close period of 6 seconds - yikes.

My friend Gordon sent me these photos, which were taken off of the beaches and rocks of the Swampscott coast, a few miles south of Cape Ann (Gloucester), Mass.

I later heard a rumor that the owner of the sailboat "Perfect Drift" pictured suffered a heart attack that he didn't survive when he saw his boat on the rocks

. If true, that is both sad and a tragedy ...

Photo Credits: Gf

kingfish · Oct 31, 2006

That is sad and tragic, no doubt - incredible photos.

I think it was a corner of the same system that was blowing 10-14 footers in Lake Michigan, and developed a seiche in Lake Erie that lowered the west end by 4 feet while raising the east end by 4 feet.

Porkchunker · Oct 31, 2006

Was it the same one that went through VA and MD last Sunday? I went down and pulled the canvas cover on Saturday afternoon. The wind was so high, I almost couldn't get the cover off. Glad I was successful.

Principal Reeler · Oct 31, 2006

Porkchunker...

I think it was the same storm...PLUS it gained even more strength from a system moving in from the Great Lakes area !!!

Saturday, it was described as a Classic Nor'Easter by the weather guys.

Dales pics really show the fury of the storm. It's terrible about the fella who had the heart attack over his damaged sailboat

.

I played hookey on Friday and went to my marina to take my bimini off. Glad I did, as other boats in areas lost theirs.

Good friend of mine once told me: "Mac...Mother Nature can either caress your cheeks or spank your cheeks." Different parts of the anatomy, I presume :lol:

On Saturday, we got whupped :shock:

Mac

Themis · Nov 1, 2006

I went down Sunday morning, when he wind was still whipping 50-60 gusts on the Jersey Shore. The old mooring whips, with my other spring lines, just barely held the boat off the dock. It was violent rocking for sure. All ended fine, but I see that next season I need larger mooring whips. My starboard side rub rail was white in sections from kissing the pilings (which have plastic cushioning nailed to them for this purpose). If the direction of the wind was 5 degrees more southerly, and less westerly, I am sure the whips would have snapped, and I'd be looking at a lot of fiberglass damage.

I gotst to get her out of the water this weekend.

dave-j · Nov 2, 2006

I drive by that beach every day on my way to work. Technically, it was not a nor'easter. More from the southeast. That spared Marblehead (which is notoriously open to the northeast), but HAMMERED Swampscott.

I have never seen such big waves in Swampscott that were not part of a winter storm. Just rockin and rollin.

To be fair, some of the boats on the beach were those that sit there week and after week with nobody ever going on them or checking them. There simply aren't that many moorings in that harbor to justify that level of damage. I suspect that there were a bunch of poorly maintained moorings or pendants.

Plus, this was completely forecasted. Not a surprise storm by any means.

Still, a tragedy...