Irene Storm News from Vergennes, VT

September 1, 2011

Since several people have indicated they want information about how we weathered the stormy weather from Hurricane Irene, I am departing from my regular blog sequence and posting this current update.

FLUKE at town dock, north wall, before storm

Here we are tied up at the town dock in Vergennes, VT, 7 miles up Otter Creek from Lake Champlain. We figured that we would have great wind protection here and not have to worry about any wave action. Both of those assumptions turned out to be good ones. We did not know that Otter Creek ran another 100 miles above the falls that we were tied up just below. Some parts of Rutland and Middlebury drain into Otter Creek. That was what brought us our problems.

Notice in the photo that we are tied up to both a floating dock and a heavy corrugated bulk head that sits about 4' higher than the floating dock. The bulk head has big cleats on top and is designed to be used by a river cruise ship that docks here.

The guys adjusting and adding lines before the storm

We originally tied up with 5 dock lines. For the “event”, we added another 5 and put fire hose on the lines where they would be subject to chafing as the water rose. You can see in this photo how high the wall is above Wayne and Eddie who are standing on the floating dock.

By the time we had FLUKE secured to the bulkhead, it was apparent that FLUKE would actually be holding in the floating dock. At least, the section that we were attached to. The dock takes a turn beyond the wall ahead of us, and had 3 sailboats and a small powerboat on it. That part of the dock was only secured to shore with some cable attached to what looked to be the metal bars used for street signs. We were worried if that broke loose or floated over the top, those boats would get pushed back into us. Since all of them were such lightweights, the danger was lessened.

The rain began on Saturday night and continued all day on Sunday and then stopped on Monday morning. The wind was never really an issue, other than driving the rain at times. Even by nightfall on Sunday, the water level was still below the bulkhead. However, we could see that the rate of rise had increased, and we knew we had to monitor what was happening to the floating dock. If it floated up high enough, we knew it would tip on its side, laying right up against our hull. Sleep was out of the question, anyway, because there was so much debris coming over the falls and hitting the hull making a real racket. We were faring well with the tree trunks and logs, but I was worried that one of them would get crosswise on our bow and just eat away at the finish. Plus, I kept imagining getting hit by a refrigerator or car.

We never dreamed that we would be getting any assistance from anyone. To our complete surprise, the city maintenance staff supervisor showed up every couple of hours during the whole of Sunday night to check the chain lengths on the floating dock. FOUR times, he added lengths of chain to keep the dock from tipping. He first started out wearing hip waders, but by the end, he had to have chest waders on and have a life line to shore.

High water, but not at crest

Even though the rain had stopped on Monday morning, Otter Creek didn't crest until 4:00 p.m. It was stressful watching the continual rise because we knew if the barrels on the floating dock rose over the top of the wall we would have some bigger problems. We were happy to see the crest happen before dark, thinking that we wouldn't have to spend as much time up at night again. At the highest water the big wall cleats were submerged. There was so much water on the land side of the dock we were confined to the boat; the current was so strong rushing by on both sides of the dock.

Our hand ferry

By Tuesday afternoon, a local from town brought a metal boat for us to use to get to land. That's us taking a ride to shore, over the submerged road. Lines were tied to the bow and stern so that anyone could use it in either direction.

Water continued to lower until Wednesday afternoon, when it began to rise again. Since then we've had it go up slowly, only about another two inches. Much less debris is coming over the falls, but some rain is in the forecast, and we are dreading what that may stir up.

Foam snot

The waterfalls are creating massive amounts of dirty foam, so we are being kept busy trying to keep it from building up on the side of the boat like you see in this early morning photo. We haven't yet wiped her nose! Right now the only known problem we have is something stuck on our starboard stabilizer since we can hear the constant rattle of “it” hitting the hull. Hopefully nothing else is stuck on any other underwater parts. Even if the current wasn't so bad, the water looks like chocolate milk, so going in the water to take a look is out of the question.

Since the Champlain Canal is closed we don't really have anywhere to go. So, it seems we will try to stay here until the town kicks us off the dock. At least we don't feel guilty taking the dock space away from other boats since only a couple have braved the running current to head up this way since the storm passed.