The past few days on Hatteras Island no one ever said goodbye. Not the people at the hotel, the clerks at the grocery store, folks out for a walk on the beach, deputies, friends or waitresses in restaurants. They did not say "see you later" or "take care." Instead, they all said the same thing. "Be safe."
Hurricane Florence threatened but did not damage Hatteras Island. The first high tide with a storm surge, late morning Thursday, breached the dunes. Not a problem in itself, but weakness in the dune line makes the narrow parts of the island vulnerable to following high tides with storm surges. Fortunately for the island Florence moved on and the the surge decreased the following high tide.
There may have been hurricane force gusts, but only briefly. There were warnings about tornados. Water spout were seen skipping from the sound to the ocean. But there was no damage, no homes flooded, no injuries.
Leaving the island this morning, we had to talk our way past a checkpoint, we had breakfast in the upper Outer Banks. Heading back north, the waitress said "be safe."
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I have been following the blog posts for MiRaVar, Lorenzo's sailing raid on the French coast of the Mediterranean. Written in French and Italian, I've had to use google translate to read the entries. The latest posts - photographs of sailing boats, beautiful water, smiling faces - need no translation.
And Be Smart. Kind of like the Learning Lessons that allow us to do what we do with our small boats. Thanks for sharing information about the storm and knowledge about your boating adventures.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Clark. Hatteras dodged the bullet, I'm sorry to hear many people on the the coast are dealing with flooding. People sometimes think the day of a hurricane is the worst, but it is often the day, weeks, months and maybe even years afterwords that are tough.
ReplyDeleteHello Steve, the Miravar raid has been a truly fantastic experience, sailing with friends with many beautiful and capable small boats. I'll make sure a future edition will coincide with your long awaited visit to this corner of the world!
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