It's been a stressful few days for most of the US East Coast as Sandy (which they're now referring to as 'superstorm' Sandy, in lieu of the storm being downgraded from official hurricane status) made landfall last night in New Jersey. New York City apparently suffered the worst damage, with widespread flooding (at places into the subway system), and large power outages. And, as was reported yesterday locally in Hampton, the HMS Bounty replica ship was lost with her captain yesterday off of Cape Hatteras.
The storm has obviously been THE topic of discussion here in Hampton among the crews that have made it here thus far. It's indeed affected the Caribbean 1500 pre-departure program, as we had a washout on Monday with all seminars re-scheduled for Wednesday (tomorrow). At least a dozen boats still remain en-route to Hampton, many of which are on the Chesapeake and plan to arrive by Thursday and Friday.
But it hasn't dampened the mood of participants too much (though it did dampen the pants of Ian Winterborn of Reberth. Check out this video that Ian's wife gave the Rally Office this morning of Ian attempting to board his boat through the high waters of yesterday's high tide). The weather took a chilly turn overnight, with temps in the 40s today, so everyone is looking forward to their landfall in the islands. Last night at the Hampton Auction House, the Hampton Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted a very successful welcome reception for the crews in Hampton. The 'bid bus' provided transportation during the downpour, and rally participants were treated to beer, wine and an enormous buffet of local seafood and corn on the cob. A local two-man-band was on hand to provide the entertainment, and deputy Mayor George Wallace formally welcomed everyone to Hampton.
The fleet also welcomed a few new arrivals into town, including the J-42 Keep it Simple, who sailed down in very boisterous conditions on Sunday, and remained hunkered down on the boat at Bluewater through the height of the storm yesterday. "It's good we got away when we did," owner Joe told the rally staff this morning. "It was only blowing 15 knots when we left Annapolis," added crewmember Lee. "We took one reef when the wind increased to 20 knots," said Joe, "and the second at 26 knots. By the time we got down the Bay, there were six foot seas - one of which jumped on the boat, filling the cockpit - and pretty strong winds. But it was all coming from behind us, and we made it in all right."
The rest of the fleet hunkered down in Annapolis is planning on leaving Wednesday or Thursday and arriving here 24 hours or so later.
Today's seminar program is continuing on schedule. Steve Black (the founder of the Caribbean 1500) is back this year to discuss weather forecasting offshore and strategies for crossing the Gulf Stream, while this morning Rick Palm and Andy Schell lectured on health at sea, yacht rigging and troubleshooting diesel engines offshore. The seminar program will continue tomorrow with the program originally scheduled for Monday, starting with Julie Palm's provisioning seminar at 0900 in the Dockside Ballroom at Hampton Public Piers.
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